0 °"70989°39594
FRONT COVER: Dorothy
Kalekuye Musau, a farmer from
Machakos, Kenya, holds a tree she
is about to plant on her land. Like
many of her neighbors, she has
been assisted by Kenya’s Greenbelt
Movement. Organized and run by
Number 66 FEATURES Spring 1990
women, it is an example of success-
2 Introduction by Richard Nilsen ful environmental restoration on
a national scale. Photograph by
2 Life Work William Campbell.
Some reasons why environmental
restoration may be the art form
of the twenty-first century
by Jim Dodge
4 Just A Few Oddball Species
Restoration and the rediscovery of the
tallgrass savanna ao
hy, Steve Packard
16 Early American Treeplanting V Ve 4
From apple seeds to arbor day —S~ 49 Watershed Rehabilitation 3
by Richard Sassaman Y At Redwood National Park =
by Karen Griffin
21 A Look Backward
Articles and books on restoration in CQ and WER tf 52 Healing The Dream Of Apocalypse: a
by Richard Nilsen A Ritual ;
[ by Michael Ortiz Hill 7
22 Restoration: Shaping The Land, Transforming i
The Human Spirit
by William R. Jordan III
58 Creating A Restoration Database
by Jane Witkin
24 Pitfalls On The Way To Lasting Restoration
by Seth Zuckerman
64 Teaching Restoration To Kids
by Don Waxman
7
i
k
f
32 ‘Turning Back The Clock In The
Florida Everglades
by Randy Williams
68 Word And Flesh
by Wendell Berry
72 How To Heal The Land
36 ‘To Learn The Things We Need To Know |, by Jack Monschke
Engaging the particulars of the
planet’s recovery : 84 Eight Poems
by Freeman House by Antler
Whole Earth Review 0 Issue No. 66 0) March 7, 1990 (ISSN 0749-5056) (USPS 077-150). Published quarterly by POINT, a California nonprofit corporation. Editorial office: 27
Gate Five Road, Sausalito, CA 94965; 415/332-1716. Subscriptions $20 per year; single copies $5. Inquire for first class and international air rates. Second-class postage paid at
Sausalito, California, and at additional mailing offices. Claims for missing issues will not be honored later than six months after publication. Back issues are available on microfilm
and as xerographic reprints from University Microfilms International, Serials Bid Coordinator, 300 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Whole Earth Review is indexed by Access:
The Supplementary Index to Periodicals, Alternative Press Index, Magazine Index, Consumers Index, and Humanities Index.
Copyright © 1990 by POINT. All rights reserved. Subscription circulation: 21,181. Newsstand circulation: 33,170.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Whole Earth Review, P. O. Box 38, Sausalito, CA 94966.
86 Revisiting Auroville
A twenty-year-old project:
that’s still growing
by Alan Lithman
89 Australia Turns An
Environmental Corner
by Richard Nilsen
90 No Longer Flows The Neva
Leningrad grapples with
a crisis in water quality
by Peter Riggs
95 Letting The Amazon Pay
Its Own Way
by Jon Christensen
. 98 Miracle In A Lifeless Pit
Quarry restoration in Kenya
by Norman Myers
102 Natural Restoration
by Susan E. Davis
106 Restoring Cities From
The Bottom Up
A bi-coastal view from
the street
by Mike Helm and George Tukel
113 Urban Designs That Work
by David Sucher
116 Turning Industrial Polluters
Into Good Neighbors
by Sanford J. Lewis
120 Finding And Using
Toxics Information
by Philip Wexler
122 What’s Underfoot
Computer tools for restoration
by Hank Roberts
125 A Crime Lab For Animals
by Judith Goldsmith
128 Truth And Beauty
At Rainbow Bend
by Jerry McGahan
132 Peace Brigades
International
by Larry Lack
15
21
48
55
56
57
60
66
67
The Control of Nature
O To Govern Evolution
O The End of Nature
The Earth Manual
Nyle Dehumidification Lumber
Dryers GO Books by Chris Maser:
The Redesigned Forest © Forest
Primeval 0 From the Forest
to the Sea
Fallout: An American Nuclear
Tragedy |
GARBAGE
CF Restoring the Earth
Society for Ecological
Restoration C Restoration and
Management Notes
A Survey of Publications
Covering Restoration
by Dave Egan
Project Wild
Manure, Meadows and
Milkshakes O Urban Forestry
for Children
© Project Learning Tree
80
81
82
83
89
International Restoration
Suppliers 0 Native Seed
Foundation 0 Tubex Treeshelters
Fences Coming and Going
by J. Baldwin
Stream Care 0 Groundwork
Stream Enhancement Guide
0 Attracting Backyard Wildlife
0 Wildlife Habitat
Enhancement Council
Case Studies in
~ Environmental Hope
Center for U.S.-U.S.S.R
Initiatives
The Fate of the Forest
Shading Our Cities
O A Green City Program
0 Global Releaf
119 National Toxics Campaign
121 RACHEL
123 The Sierran Biodiversity
Project
by Eric and Steve Beckwitt
124 macGIS 0 ARC/INFO
0 QOEdit 0 Vantage
131 Man of the Trees
OC The Man Who Planted Trees
CO Backyard Safari
- Dean ———
Sa SS SSS
SS
=: =
p.
=e, =e
|
—————
————
ae
134 Report on Guatemala
135. A Brief History of Central
America
136 The Handbook of Non-Violence
(1 Pueblo to People 1989 Field
Guide to Citizens’ Diplomacy
© Powerful Peacemaking
137 Civilian-Based Defense
1 Guatemala Rainbow
0 The Sacred Mountain of Tibet
Gate Five Road:
138 Backscatter
141 -Reader Services
142 Gossip
143 Recycling Update 0 Masthead
144 Financial Report
145 Thank You
146 Unclassifieds
148. 1989 Index
Inside Back Cover:
Wetland Remedy
Introduction
BY RICHARD NILSEN
This issue is devoted to environmental restora-
tion. Consider it an invitation to get your hand:
dirty. Old houses can be restored, but so can
streams, marshes, and forests. Here are people :
working with nature, explaining how they doi
and why. As an activity that invites your parti
cipation, environmental restoration is a way ()
focusing on the particular instead of the planet.
We are suckers for the grandiose. Phrases like
‘save the earth’’ and ‘‘heal the planet’’ have —
become part of the problem, as Wendell Berry _
argues on page 08,
Work
BY JIM DODGE
A basic rule of human habitation has always been ‘‘Don't
shit in camp.’’ When the number of human inhabitants
reached five billion, ‘‘camp’’ became the planet, the
common ground of the global village and everyone's
backyard. This recognition that our species’ pollution and
pillage in disparate locales now threatens, by cumulative
insults, to foul the collective nest has been relatively sud-
den (the last thirty years of human occupation) and per-
haps too late. But if necessity is the mother of invention, .
species-survival may prove downright inspirational. ! q
_ Working at environmental restoration helps get
| priorities straight. If you have to step around a
_ homeless person on the’ way to the mailbox with
_acheck supporting Third World peoples, you _
are overlooking a basic contradiction. If there
_ are no trees on your block, or pollution is killing — :
_ the trees there now, then focusing on rainforest —
_depletion in the Amazon basin is a misplaced _
_ concern. And if lack of habitat has eliminated _
the frogs or ener B from your ences:
The notion of ‘‘right livelihood’’ — work that is indivi- j
dually satisfying and for the common good — is begin-
ning to exert its simple wisdom on a wider scale. If we
spend about a third of our lives sleeping and a third at
work, a comfortable bed and a fulfilling job are obvious
provisions for getting a jump on happiness. A recent
Columbia University study of people over 95 years old
asked the elders what they'd change if they could re-live i
their lives. Among the three most frequent answers was ee.
‘Create something that would last beyond death.’ (The :
species you byt to a Thor: is urgent work ‘
us all, and it begins i in our own ee
L Some argue that loc J <
are diversionary, that the. most enon needa _
__ for broad changes in national policy. It’s true
_that the situation cries out for strong leaders. |
Consider one glaring example: we began the
last decade with a millenarian deconstructioni
for Secretary of the Interior, and have ended it
with that office occupied by a spent political
hack. How do we change that? By first educat-
_ ing enough people about what a healthy envi-
ronment needs — beginning » with their ¢ own
communities.
_ This country is kbout feta and jt HH
began over particular local grievances, Will t
process of building a popular groundswell of in
formed demand for changes in our environmen--
tal laws be any different? Doing environmental _
restoration work gives you intimate understand. _
_ ing of what a healthy environment should look —
_ like, and new eyes that will begin to see the :
of ae world a little aed = :
Victoria Stockley
The author consults with old-timer Jimmy Kennedy about
removing a log jam on Palmer Creek in the Gualala River water-
shed in Northern California. Some log jams act as barriers to
spawning salmon. This one took a crew of eight one week to
remove with hand tools.
2 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Reasons Why
Environmental
Restoration May
Be The
Art Form Of The
Twenty-First
Century
Cazadero Forest Workers’ crew stabi-
lizing the toe of a cutbank to prevent
further erosion. Materials used came
from a nearby log jam.
other two were ‘Take more risks’’ and ‘‘Stop and smell
the roses.’’) Restoration work not only offers right liveli-
hood at a time when we seem sick-to-puking with mean-
ingless labor for the poverty of dollars, it also, according
to our elders, insures us against regret. Work is work, but
it’s a pleasure to sing for one’s supper when the song itself
‘provides sustenance.
Restoration, like any art, seeks a greater understanding
of existence, which tends to deepen our appreciation,
gratitude, and humility, salubrious states of mind that are
less fringe benefits than compelling requisites for further
work. Moreover, the art of restoration is finely balanced
between mind and body, thought and sweat. The work
is heads-up and hands-on: figuring out by guess, gut,
experience, and calculation how many trees to plant on
the hillside, what species, when, and to what immediate
and long-term consequence, then picking up your hoe-
dad and doing it. Even better, it’s. outside work, so you
don't have to make a special trip to smell the roses or feel .
the rain on your face. Compared to restoration, the other
arts seem dangerously self-involved and boringly one-
dimensional. |
It’s my feeling, one that swings between conviction and
wild hope, that we're at a point in species’ consciousness
where we're about to grasp both the importance and
rightness of helping the planet heal the injuries we've
mindlessly inflicted. It’s tempting to think of restoration
as a new genre of the healing arts, but in fact we have
hardly begun to wash the wounds, much less address the
psycho-social pathologies and self-destructive contempt
that fuel the affliction. In caring for the earth, we may
heal ourselves, but at present the art of restoration is more
janitorial than medicinal. We've made a mess of creation,
and now we need to clean it up. @
Jim Dodge helped write the ‘‘Where You At?’’ environmental quiz
in the Bioregions issue of CoEvolution Quarterly in the winter of
1981 ( #32) — one of the most-reprinted items we've ever published.
He lives in Arcata, California, where he is an author, a former restora-
tion worker, and a running-dog bioregionalist. —Richard Nilsen
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 3
Victoria Stockley
Restoration rN ae i iats,
Rediscovery Of The
Ke) lle|cetisiere Wie lalate
BY STEVE PACKARD
4 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
T WAS NOT OUR INTENTION to rediscover a lost eco-
system. We were trying something else — to restore a tall-
grass prairie landscape in an aggressive, non-compromising
way. The North Branch Prairie Project now involves scien-
tists from eight institutions and hundreds of volunteer
workers. But when we began in 1977, we were just a few
individuals with ideas and determination. Our initial goal
had been to nurse back to health some small degraded
prairies that survived in the Cook County forest preserves along the
North Branch of the Chicago River, beginning within the city of
Chicago and extending just beyond its borders in the northern
suburbs. Most of our seven sites were at first little more than small
openings in thickets of young brush. The grassy, flowery, open por-
tions ranged in size from a few acres to a small part of an acre. Our
idea was to enlarge these remnants by clearing the brush around them
and planting prairie species in its place. We gathered seeds for many.
of the rarer things from the rapidly vanishing original prairie patches
along railroads and other odd spots. The brush we cut consisted
This tale of successful restoration combines enthusiasm, including a willingness
to break the rules, with erudition; and bas the elements of a good detective story.
An earlier version appeared in Restoration & Management Notes (see review, p. 57).
Steve Packard is Director of Science and Stewardship in Illinois for The Nature Con-
servancy, a mainstream preservation group that increasingly finds itself involved
with restoration projects. For more information about the prairies and people in
this article, contact TNC, 79 West Monroe, Chicago, IL 60603.—Richard Nilsen
VIRGINIA WILD RYE
Dixon Telegraph
(Left) A volunteer sows seed to restore grasslands. The seed is
a dry mesic prairie mix of about 50 different species, one of
12 basic mixes developed for different types of prairie and
savanna. In all, more than 150 species are used.
mainly of non-native European buckthorn (Rbamnus
cathartica) and large numbers of ash, elm, cottonwood,
and other native trees. Visitors to these public forest
preserves and our own Sierra Club volunteers sometimes
questioned — and sometimes vigorously challenged —
the cutting of all these trees.
Our objective was clear, however. It was to restore these
tracts to their original, natural condition. The pre-settle-
ment government survey of the area had recorded open
prairie, with patches of oaks mostly along the river. We
impressed on our critics that these prairie relics were ex-
tremely rare, while young brushland makes up a major
part of the Forest Preserve District's 67,000 acres. Thorn
thickets too dense to walk through in places represent not
only a loss of habitat for the native animals and plants,
but also a loss of useable recreation land for the public.
These formerly open prairies are worth billions of dollars
today, yet they exist as an impenetrable urban wilderness,
increasingly at risk from development as they degrade.
How can we expect to maintain the political constituen-
cy to protect and expand these preserves if they degen-
erate into overgrown thickets?
Tallgrass savanna was deemed worthy of preservation
earlier in this century for the same reason it makes a first-
rate recreational landscape today — it was a natural, open
‘‘parkland.’’ This happy coincidence between what ecolo-
gists should want for biological conservation and what
the general public would want for recreation and aesthetic
purposes is an important factor in the ongoing restoration.
People responded quickly to the purity and grandeur of
the vision. Right in the metropolis we would restore
something of real cultural and ecological significance.
Though surrounded by a heavy growth of brush, some
of the old oaks remained, and there was debate about
what to do in the areas under those oaks. Did we envi-
sion forest? Or savanna? How close to the trees would we
let our fires get when we burned the prairies? Particular-
ly in areas rich in spring woodland flora, there was strong
sentiment for protecting the ‘‘forest.’’ But another ele-
ment of the vision compelled us to attempt to restore what
(Right) An ancient bur oak with lower limos and understory
grasses, flowers and animals shaded out, disappearing, or gone,
as brush invades in the absence of fire. Buffaloes and Indians
probably walked under this tree — bur oaks live up to 400 years.
we had read of so often, something that no longer ex-
isted anywhere — the rich grassland running up to, and
under, and through the oaks. The tallgrass savanna — a
prairie with trees.
The question was, how do we bring the prairie together
with the existing old oaks? Along the North Branch, the
bank of thicket that separated our prairies from the an-
cient oaks ranged in width from 50 feet to a quarter mile
or more. Where the oaks were close, we could see their
heavy, twisted black limbs through the thin gray branch-
es of ash and aspen. It was as if they were in prison or
refugee camps, their lower limbs dead or dying in the
deepening shade. ‘'Free the oaks!’’ we sometimes joked.
We felt the prairie and the natural woodland were lonely
for each other, incomplete and unhealthy.
We wanted to use natural forces to bring them together,.
however. So we relied on the fires we were using to restore
and maintain the adjacent, open prairies. We let the fires
blast into the brush lines as far as they would go. ‘‘Let
the fire decide,’ became our motto. That had been the
natural scheme; that’s what we wanted. But most years,
in most cases, the brush patches wouldn't burn. Ten-foot
grass flames would sear the outer edges. But in the thicket
where there was no grass, just green wood and matted
leaves, the blaze quickly dwindled and flickered out. Most
of the brush that did burn quickly grew back. We began
to believe that the question was, did we have enough
determination and patience to give natural processes two
SARS AS
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 5
Steve Packard
or three hundred years to work themselves out? Or could
we find something quicker?
Interesting Failures
The obvious way to speed up the process of pushing the
prairies back under the oaks was to continue clearing
brush from the edge of the prairie right up to the trees.
So, on April 5, 1980, six of us cut and dragged away the
brush that separated the west edge of our Indigo Prairie
from a patch of large bur and Hill's oaks. Onto the friable
black earth under the oaks, where 5-inch DBH [diameter
at breast height] cherry, hawthorn, and elm trees had
stood, and out into the open, we broadcast about half
a bushel of our choicest prairie seed mix. Then we raked
it in for a comfortable start on its historic mission.
Two years later, when we evaluated the results, the pro-
spects seemed hopeful. Thick stands of switch, Indian,
and Canada wild rye grasses stood shoulder-to-shoulder
with rattlesnake master and yellow coneflower; down on
the ground the neatly sawed stumps of the once-invading
trees were sprouting mushrooms. For some reason the
grasses hadn't taken so well at the west edge, closest to
the trees. But at least we had a natural ecotone, and nature
could now take its course.
Buoyed by our apparent success, we cut the brush away
from many oak edges and planted much more prairie
seed. By the third year, however, it was clear something
was wrong. Near the trees a few species, notably Kalm’s
brome (Bromus kalmii), yellow coneflower (Ratibida pin-
nata), and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) did tolerably
well at first, but the plantings remained thin, produced
little fuel, and burned poorly. Gradually they filled in with
brush. The leaves of the brush species quickly matted and
rotted into the soil; the fires couldn't burn across bare
dirt. And even under the oaks, where our fires burned
well enough through the crisp oak leaves, none of our
seed grew. What was wrong?
Buckthorn Thicket
Heartsick at the depredations of lumbermen and sheep,
John Muir once lamented that the ground layer of the
Sierra forests, ‘‘once divinely beautiful, is desolate and
repulsive, like a face ravaged by disease.’’ The prairie
groves of Illinois were once as grand and flowery as the
natural ‘‘gardens’’ Muir championed in the western
mountains. In Illinois, however, overgrazing is just half
the problem. The other half is protection from fire. With-
out fire, the prairie groves sicken and deteriorate. The most
obvious symptoms of this deterioration are infestations
of European buckthorn, Tartarian honeysuckle (Lonica
tatarica) and garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis). These
aliens create thickets so dense, green up so early in spring,
and hang on so late in fall, that they often drive out
everything else. An especially sad (and common) land-
scape features forlorn, aristocratic old oaks in an unbroken
sea of buckthorn — the understory kept so dark by the
alien shrubbery that not one young oak, not one spring
trillium, not one native grass can be found. Except for
6 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
PRAIRIE CONEFLOWER
Pasture and Range Plants
N Illinois, over-
grazing Is just
aie lime) miats
'e)<e)@)(= aa mm lato
ojiats) a arellas
protection
ice)aamilesy
the relic oaks, whose decades are numbered, the original
community is dead.
Early publications of the Forest Preserve District, printed
in the 1920s, show gracious open groves with tablecloths
spread underneath for picnics. To traverse some of the
same ground today would require an armored vehicle, or
dynamite. Tackling it with merely a machete would be
slow going. Don't wear your goose-down parka. It would
soon be shredded and plucked. In some places you can
explore the preserves only by crawling for long stretches
on bare dirt under the dead, thorny lower branches of
- buckthorn.
The remarkably farsighted 1913 law authorizing the
District calls for it ‘‘to restore (emphasis added), restock,
protect and preserve the natural forests and said lands
(i.e. lands connecting such forests), together with their
flora and fauna, as nearly as may be, in their natural state
and condition, for the purpose of the education, pleasure
and recreation of the public.’’ That noble statement — and
the courage of District staff people in supporting our ex-
perimental work — emboldened us. Frustrated by the
failure of our attempts to expand the prairie into the
brushy areas near and beneath the oaks, we decided to
leapfrog the persistent brushy border and to recut our fire
lines to bring the fire in behind the brush, into the heart
of the woodlands themselves. That would mean an un-
burnable strip of pure brush would still separate the grassy '
prairie from the oak-leafy grove. But at least the fire would
be attacking the brush from both sides.
Steve Packard
(Above) Americans have learned fire ecol-
ogy from the lumber interests (Smokey the
Bear) and Walt Disney (Bambi). The principal
reason for the loss of prairie and savanna
on “‘protected” conservation lands has
been fire suppression. This sign, along a
neatly mowed roadside, serves almost as a
tombstone for the largely vanished mid-
western prairie and savanna species that
once comprised the 1,500-acre nature
preserve behind it.
e
(Right) Volunteers burning prairie on the
North Branch in Cook County. In Illinois,
there are no large rural prairie preserves on
good soil; they are all farmland. The only
remaining specimens are in and around
cities. Prairies must be burned to be sus-
tainable, and educating nearby homeowners
of this fact is a necessary step. Once neigh-
bors understand the process and see the
beauty of the prairies that result, they
become supportive.
@
First Burns
Our first burn deep in a bur oak grove was in the spring
of 1984. It led to a comedy of soaring and dashed hopes.
We were profoundly relieved when this ‘forest fire’’ went
without mishap. We were depressed that the mostly 4-
to 5-inch flames gave every appearance of being ineffec-
tual. (Occasional patches of denser fuel flared up might-
ily.) But we soon found to our delight that even the little
flames top-killed most of the buckthorn and Tartarian
honeysuckly in the grove. Aside from small resprouts, the
understory had been transformed from dense brush to
entirely open; where visibility had extended just five or
ten feet, you could now see for 50 to 100 yards.
We crawled on the bare dirt that summer, expecting prairie
plants to appear, and looking, as always after burning a
new area, for a few surprises. It was an exciting time. But
the excitement gradually dimmed when nothing much ap-
peared. Even after a second, much hotter fire and a sec-_
ond summer, most of the soil remained bare, waiting.
It's been 150 years since the natural savanna flourished
in this grove, though; the seeds may not last that long.
There was reason to suspect that the problem was not a
defunct seed bank of residual prairie species. In a few
places we had actually sown prairie seed, choosing spots
where we or the fires had cleared brush and left a hole
in the canopy. Such planting had resulted in diverse, dense
stands of prairie plants out in the open, but among the
oaks we got at most a few wispy, flaccid shoots. In hos-
pital nurseries doctors use the term ‘ ‘failure to thrive’’ to
describe babies with a puzzling, sometimes fatal, wasting
syndrome. Our seeded “‘prairie understory'’ was failing
to thrive.
And a parallel ominous development gradually loomed
up. During that second summer my dirty-kneed search
for unfamiliar seedlings turned up increasing numbers
of weeds. Canada and bull thistle, dandelion, briars
(Rubus sp), and burdock (Arctium minus) were increasing
exponentially. Not forever was this bare ground going to
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 7
Steve Packard
ART of our problem was
OO} MAW icmicikommialial.<iale
Kole anlvleie ne] elele)m e)cel lite
and weren't picking up
ViVi O1@ Lie] KO@}i alo arere)aalaalelaiiay
Des isis ie We lalale para .e
| trying to Tell us.
Pasture and Range Plants
wait for a rare community to find it. My judgment was
that within two seasons the handsome galleries the fire
had opened up under the oaks would become a dense
tangle of mostly alien weeds. Conservative native species
might conceivably out-compete them over the long run,
if any emerged without the ‘failure to thrive’’ syndrome.
But that process might take a very long time once a dense
briar and thistle patch had become established. Would
anyone go through the annual difficulties of getting this
site burned decade after decade if it didn’t seem as though
we were on the right track? Would I? Unless something
changed quickly, it looked as though we'd soon have an
unsuccessful experiment on our hands.
Searching for an explanation, I visited the oak edge plant-
ings at some of our other sites. At Indigo, the prairie
grasses still stopped just short of the oaks. A dense stand
of wild bergamot, yellow coneflower, and Canada wild
rye (Elymus canadensis) ventured a little closer to the trees
than the bluestem and Indian grass. But the prairie species
just wouldn't move in under the oaks. In the shade behind
the bergamot was a zone of alien thistles and bare dirt.
I pulled the thistles, as 1 had a couple times a season for
three years. But it was clear that they were gaining on me.
And similar things were going on at a number of our
other sites.
At Miami Woods, on the other hand, we initially thought
the plantings were doing better. Plenty of grass appeared.
But the grass, when it headed out, wasn't what we'd sowed
at all. Instead it was three.species unfamiliar to me, cer-
tainly not native prairie grasses, all of which I’d lovingly
studied and knew well. Puzzled, I pressed specimens to
key out over the winter.
Looking back, | realize that part of our problem was that
we were thinking too much about prairie and weren't pick-
ing up what this other community — the savanna — was
trying to tell us. Certainly, during these years I was wor-
rying more about our prairie restorations than about the
troublesome edges that would give rise to our savanna
effort. Those prairies are another story; in fact many of
our plantings in the open were going gangbusters. But I
8 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
INDIAN GRASS
worried, when I walked under the oaks and weeded the
expanding thistle patches.
That fall we gathered more masses of prairie seed from
our flourishing, open sites. We also began to gather seeds
of whatever native plants were growing best in our edge
plantings and in other partly shaded areas like those that
were bedeviling us. )
Winter
Fortunately winter comes each year, giving me time to
think. During the indoor months at the beginning of 1985,
I read Floyd Swink and Gerald Wilhelm's 800-page Plants
of the Chicago Region (1979) from cover to cover. The bulk
of the book is made up of brief ecological notes for the
plants in the region accompanied by lengthy lists of as-
sociated plants. In the meantime I had keyed down the
three grasses that had appeared in the edge planting at
Miami Woods. All three had turned out to be natives:
wedge grass (Sphenopbolis intermedia), wood reed (Cinna :
arundinacea), and Virginia wild rye (Elymus virginicus). As
I studied Swink and Wilhelm’s comments on these and
other miscellaneous species of our oak-edge sites, they
began to stop seeming quite so miscellaneous. Many were
listed as associates of each other or had third-party asso-
ciates in common. I began to wonder about these species
that thrived in partial shade in spite of our best efforts
to grow prairie species there. And I began to wonder if
they might be what we ought to be gathering and plan-
ting — at least initially — to ward off the assault of the
thistles and briars.
Meanwhile, I received another prod directing my atten-
tion toward the oak groves. The previous June, John White
of The Nature Conservancy’s national office had sent our
office a memo on critical areas recommending that one
of our top priorities should be the savanna. ‘‘Savannas
are nearly exterminated, everywhere in the Midwest,’’ he
wrote. '‘Remnants should be saved and restored.’’ This
was the first time, at least in my experience, that a Con-
servancy planner had proposed restoration. White’s com-
eee
ments underscored the significance of what we'd been
wrestling with on the North Branch.
In libraries I now found myself rummaging through old
papers. What we call savanna, the early settlers often re-
ferred to as ‘‘barrens,’ and as early as 1863, Henry
Engelmann had marveled at how rapidly these barrens
grew up into trees following settlement, when the wild-
fires were stopped. In 1936 A. G. Vestal wondered what
the plants of the barrens had been and speculated that
they might still survive on wood edges, logged: areas and
the like.
Vestal also speculated that the savanna understory was
not simply prairie, and his suspicion jibed with my exper-
iences. When the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory look-
ed for savanna areas worth preserving, what they sought
(Above) Fire originally kept the understory
free of brush and open for the savanna grasses
and wildflowers. After settlement, grazing
cattle kept the understory open until such
areas were ‘‘preserved,’”’ as in this 1921 photo
of a new forest preserve in southern Cook
County. Today this area is dense brushland
or young forest. In either case, the oaks
don’t reproduce, and the rare animals and
plants of the savanna are gone.
(Right) Many of the original heros of the
savanna can be found today only in small
numbers and in odd situations, such as along
the edges of mowed horsepaths like this. For
these plants, the mowing acts like a substi-
tute for fire, and keeps back the brush.
— and did not find — were undisturbed stands of oaks
with prairie flora underneath. Maybe they were looking
for the wrong thing.
If I understood what Engelmann was saying, in the ab-
sence of fire some disturbance would have been necessary
for the community to maintain itself. (And it certainly
was true that after a century and a half of protection
from fire we do find our best savanna remnants in ‘‘dis-
turbed’’:areas.) And if I understood Vestal, the key un-
derstory species to look for in these areas may in large
part not be prairie species at all, but something else. Ves-
tal mentioned American columbo (Swertia americana) as
a possibility.
By this time | was beginning to be reminded of the ex-
perience of Dr. Robert F. Betz of Northeastern Illinois
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 9
Steve Packard
RUAN D)Oya\ ah aa @\<1e lela
to realize that the
Viste (sire lile)am mel
looking for did exist — as
pitiful , patchy remnants at
best, but it did exist.
Pasture and Range Plants
University when he began rescuing the relic prairies of
Illinois back in the 1960s. Bob had found some of the
Midwest's finest ‘'virgin’’, prairie gems in old mowed
cemeteries, but at first he had met with considerable
skepticism as to whether these small, degraded patches
really were prairies. And indeed, where he managed to
get the mowing stopped many of the sites immediately
erupted with masses of Eurasian weeds. But Dr. Betz had
learned to recognize the clues that indicate a vital native
community surviving under the weeds, and after a few
years of good management, the weeds were history and
the “‘virgin’’ prairie looked immortal.
Betz eventually got so good at this sort of ecological rescue
work that he was able to recognize surviving prairies on
even more severely disturbed sites. Soon he was drawing
the attention of Natural Areas Inventory ecologists to
derelict land — tracts full of weedy trees, slashed by motor-
cycle tires, pocked with weed patches and trash mounds
— as high priorities for preservation. Before Betz, before
the insights gained from prairie management, most au-
thorities had thought that Illinois black-soil prairies were
gone. But now that we had learned to recognize them
we were finding bits and pieces all over and were often
able to bring them back to health. Is it possible that the
oak openings and prairie groves could be resuscitated
as well?
Encouraged by the thought, I began to construct a list
of potential savanna species, beginning with those that
had been appearing in our oak edge plantings. Soon I was
finding some of these in the fragmentary lists in the old .
journals, and the old lists in turn were suggesting new
species. Bebb (1860), Shimek (1911), Vestal (1936), and
others provided entries. Then I considered the associates
of all these as listed by Swink and Wilhelm.
I read and brooded over the 800 pages of Swink and
Wilhelm like an ecological mystery novel. As my list of
likely savanna species grew | sensed the possibility that
a lost community was emerging from the nether edge
of oblivion.
; 0 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
SWITCH GRASS
The resulting list of ‘'Distinctive Savanna Species,”
published informally in the proceedings of the 7th North-
ern Illinois Prairie Workshop, contained 122 species. Many
were plants I didn't know. But as the 1985 growing season
began I prowled golf course roughs, railroad rights-of-way,
cemetery corners, and the edges of horse paths in forest
preserves. Gradually I began to realize that the vegeta-
tion I was looking for did exist — as pitiful, patchy rem-
nants at best, but it did exist. On nine out of ten likely-
looking sites I would find nothing but rank weeds, yet
in an edge or corner where I would spy a few good species,
I would soon find many more. With them I would find
others, often unfamiliar species, and one after another,
these keyed down to the species I didn't know on that
first list. I began collecting all the seeds I could find in
these places.
Another insight into the savannas came in Ross Sweeney’s
garage that fall as we prepared our first major batch of
‘savanna mix.’ Our savanna seed, like our prairie seed,
was stored as gathered in hundreds of separate bags. In
Ross's garage we dump this wealth of germ plasm onto
big plastic sheets to make our mixes. A prairie mix — the
‘‘dry mesic mix,’’ say — ends up as a five-bushel mound
of seed and fluff, which we sift and mix with rakes and
shovels to prepare for planting. We'd occasionally sift
the splendid golden seed through our fingers like Silas
Marner, counting out the rare forbs and grasses, teach-
ing each other how to identify them by their functional
ornamentation.
Not so savanna seed. Though we now treat it differently,
that first fall when we reached into the storage bags we
pulled out multicolored handfuls of lumpy, oozy glop con-
taining the red and orange fruits of tinker’s weeds (Tri-
osteum sp.), mushed blue-black and pink and red berries
of the Solomon's seals (Polygonatum and Smilacina), pur-
ple fermenting plums and tawny hazelnuts (Corylus
americana). There were in all more than three dozen
species of fruits and nuts, dramatically making the point
that we were dealing with a community that did not func-
‘ ' : ae
(Right) After seed is gath-
ered it is processed for
planting by running it
through screens to break
_up the seedheads. Var-
ious species need to be
sandpapered, treated
with acid, burned, boiled,
or inoculated with spe-
cialized bacteria before
they will germinate. Filling
in for nature isn’t simple.
tion by prairie principles, but depended, for one thing,
not on wind to disperse seed, but on animals — no doubt
the turkeys, deer, squirrels, doves and other species known
to have been abundant on the old savannas.
These are now known mainly as forest edge species. We
mixed our piles of fruits and nuts with the little sacks of
rare grasses, asters, bellflowers, gentians, sedges — what-
ever native plants we could find in semi-shaded areas
similar to those where our restoration efforts had thus far
shown such dismal results. We mixed these half-and-half
(Left) Cutting dense brush back
to bare ground at the site of a
former prairie/savanna edge. The
ground is then replanted to the
original species of grasses and
flowers. Visible here is European
buckthorn. Volunteer crews of
brush cutters have revealed
small populations of several
endangered plant species, just
barely hanging on in thickets
like this.
Steve Packard
with our regular prairie seed, and once again threw hand-
fuls to the wind, back and forth through the oaks. Then
waited for the next season.
Bad Reviews
Most academics I asked to read my initial savanna paper
were, to say the least, unsupportive.
One critic objected to the presence on the list of wood-
land milkweed (Asclepias exaltata). ‘‘This is not a savan-
na species,’ she wrote. ‘‘It is found in oak woods 10-30
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i j
Bev Modioff
years after grazing.’’ But where was it for 10,000 years
before cows arrived in the area, I wondered. The only jour-
nal editor to whom I showed the manuscript responded
that my approach was ‘‘dangerous,’’ and so profoundly
flawed I ought to stop working on the savanna and wait
for someone who would do it right. The savanna species
list should be limited to those now growing on the best
surviving sites, he wrote. What’s gone is gone. He was par-
ticularly concerned that someone might attempt restora-
tion using the ‘‘untested species’’ on my list. The idea
that someone thought they might be able to learn some-
thing new about a revered natural community through
lowly restoration experiments seemed especially to offend
these critics. i
The sting of all this criticism was reduced somewhat by
the fact that the list of hypothetical species was proving
so useful. Now that I had some idea of what to look for,
these species were precisely what I was finding in former
savannas along railroad rights-of-way and the like. The
list also prompted a few colleagues to do some hard think-
ing about old experiences. After reading the list, Wayne
Schennum of the McHenry County Conservation District
remembered a site he’d evaluated many years and two jobs
earlier. It was a site the state Inventory had rejected as
‘“weedy and disturbed,’ but local people, hoping to raise
money to preserve it, were seeking to build a case that
it had at least some ecological significance. At the time
Schennum’s evaluation had been rather negative. Though
the big old scattered oaks were there, the understory had
neither enough woodland herbs to be a good woods nor
enough prairie herbs to make it a savanna. Reviewing the
new species list, though, Schennum recalled that the site
may very well have been rich in the oddball species on
Handfuls of rare seeds are thrown to the wind across
acres of burned ground among old oaks. Soon hundreds
of thousands of rare plants will reclaim their lost ground.
i Z WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
my list. I checked it out and found it to be a goldmine
of oddballs. Since then many ecologists have come to
regard what we now call the Middlefork Savanna as the
finest tallgrass savanna in Illinois. It has become a top
acquisition priority, and two prescribed burns have reveal-
ed a splendid mix of prairie white-fringed orchids (Platan-
thera leucopbaea), woodland yellow ladyslippers
(Cypripedium calceolus), and a preponderance of those
distinctive savanna species. It was precisely that hypo-
thetical species list that had made it possible for us to
recognize this site for what it was.
Among many colleagues the early skepticism was grad-
ually giving way to genuine interest. But one criticism was
tough to shake. John Curtis, whose insightful and defini-
tive studies of the natural communities of Wisconsin set
the pattern for much of our effort to understand and
preserve the Midwest’s natural communities, said plain-
ly that the savanna was a prairie with trees. He and his
student, J. R. Bray, had in fact published masses of tables
and statistics to make their point. They proved there was
no such thing as a distinctive savanna flora — ‘‘to four
decimal places,’ as one person put it.
The authority of that proof, however, was much dimin-
ished in my judgment by the fact that the sampling had
been done in unburned areas selected on the basis of some
questionable assumptions, and that it was done in the
1950s, long after the real savannas were gone. But it was
hard to ignore the fine botanists who had done the best
it was possible to do — especially since the only contrary
information was our controversial ‘‘research by restora-
tion’’ efforts on the North Branch.
Then one day in the intellectual winter of 1985-86, follow-
ing up on a lead given me by Max Hutchinson of the
Volunteers rake a prairie seed mix into the burned but still dense turf.
This degraded prairie remnant is missing about half of its original
species.
Steve Packard
wn
HE only journal editor to
whom | showed the
manuscript resoonded
liale lm aaa] ©) @)Keleloam er
“dangerous, and so pro-
foundly flawed | ought to
stop working on the savanna
and wait for someone who
would do ff right.
Natural Land Institute, I found in an 1846 issue of an early
rural journal called The Prairie Farmer an article by a coun-
try doctor named S. B. Mead titled ‘‘The Plants of IIli-
nois. ' Without a word of prose Dr. Mead, the discoverer
of Mead’s milkweed, listed all the plants he had seen in
west-central Illinois as he traveled his professional rounds
on horseback. He began this work in 1833 as one of the
region's first settlers, and most of the land he saw was
unplowed and ungrazed. The list was in no particular
order, and the names were incomprehensibly ancient. But
scientific names can be deciphered. The important thing
was that after each name was a letter or two. And a key
showed that these referred to habitats: ‘‘P’’ prairie, ‘‘T’’
timber, ‘“W"’ wet, ‘‘H”’ hills, ‘‘S’’ sand, and so forth. One
hundred and eight entries were followed by a ‘'B’’ for bar-
rens, that central Illinois settler’s name for the grassland
with trees. I felt as though I'd found a Rosetta Stone for
the savanna. :
Once laboriously decoded, the names turned out to be
marvelously familiar. They were the same sorts of plants
— often even the identical species — that were growing
so well in our oak-grove restorations and that appeared
on my published list. Few typical prairie species had a
‘‘B”’ after them in Dr. Mead’s ‘‘catalogue,’’ and in every
case those species had a ‘‘P”’ as well.
The spring of 1986 arrived on the North Branch savan-
nas with amazing grace. Countless tiny new green coty-
In 1846, Dr. Samuel Barnum Mead published the only known list
of plant species of the original midwestern savanna. Early coun-
try doctors were botanists, because the only pharmacy at hand
was local wild plants. .
Pasture and Range Plants
BUTTERFLY MILKWEED
ledons throve where only black dirt and thistles had been.
The species that we had gathered and sown the previous
fall, thinking they might be savanna species, and then had
found on Dr. Mead’s list of barrens species, were now
soaking up the mottled sunlight under the old oaks. By
summer of 1987 the space under and near the oaks waved
with hundreds of thousands of blooming rare and uncom-
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 ' 3
Mims O10 (exo Ul a1el>1 ae | ae
near the oaks waved
with hundreds of thou-
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almost entirely from seed
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mon grasses and flowers. An oak grassland community
was unfolding, almost entirely from seed we'd held in
our hands. Bottlebrush grass, silky wild rye, blue-stemmed
goldenrod, tower mustard, starry campion, and big-leafed
aster were among the most common species, but dozens
more were also abundant. Butterflies like the banded
hairstreak and great-spangled fritillary chased each other
and worked the flowers where recently there had been
only buckthorn, then two depressing years of bare dirt.
This was especially gratifying because many of the plants
in our growing list of savanna species, though described
as common in the early part of the century (Peppoon,
1927) are now listed as endangered or at least locally rare.
Bev Hansen, who oversaw the savanna seed collection in
1989, often found only a few stems within a yard or two
of some railroad right-of-way, horsepath, or mowed pic-
nic grove. For most species, a handful of seed was as much
as we could hope to gather in a season. But after two years
of restoration, our own ground is producing vastly more
seed of such refugee species than we could find elsewhere
in all the thousands of acres of forest preserves.
In the drought year of 1988, many of the invading weeds
shriveled pathetically, while the seeded original natives
continued their advance. And in 1989, a pair of Eastern
bluebirds returned here to bring up a family in their native
habitat once again. They spent most of their time in the
restored open woodland, picking insects, perhaps rare
insects, off the lush rare grasses and flowers we'd planted.
How this uncommon bird (only one pair was known to
breed anywhere in Cook County the previous year) man-
aged to find our handiwork, only nature knows. We took
it as an endorsement.
Early in this century Henry Allan Gleason, one of the
grandparents of ecology, wrote:
j 4 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Pasture and Range Plants
PLAINS BEEBALM
‘Unfortunately for the ecologist, the prairies of Illinois
were converted to corn fields long before the development
of ecology and phytogeography in America, thus forever
prohibiting the satisfactory investigation of some questions
of the most absorbing interest and also of considerable
importance in aiding a clear understanding of American
ecology, and phytogeography in general.’’ (1909)
A few years later he wrote:
‘The only undisturbed contact of typical virgin prairie
and forest observed by the writer in Illinois has been so
long protected from fire that the forest margin has grown
up to an almost impenetrable thicket of several species
of shrubs, whose prevailingly avevectent mode of disper-
sal may indicate their recent arrival in the habitat... .
‘There seems to be no authentic data on the matter, but
it is entirely probable that even within the hazel margin
there were numerous grasses, sufficient to feed a more
destructive fire than the usual litter of leaves and dead
twigs. (1913)
I think Gleason would have been happy indeed if he could
have imagined what would happen half a century later
— that a movement of the committed few at first, then
a respected and growing element of the general culture,
would begin to preserve the prairies and other rare com-
munities he took to be all but lost. I think he would have
been equally pleased to know that the efforts to restore
these communities would provide a way of learning about
them, providing answers to some of those questions ‘‘of
the most absorbing interest and . . . importance.’’
In our work along the North Branch we hope that we may
be helping to write a new chapter of this history through
the resurrection of a complex, dynamic, splendid eco-
system that no ecologist has ever seen. @
7 Fee ere Lh in : ah ";
eee Teh om
The Control of Nature
Although John McPhee describes this
book as ‘a planned vacation from proj-
ects in geology,”’ his fascination with the
forms earth takes, especially plate tec-
tonics, continues unabated. This is for-
tunate for the reader, because he is one
of the best explainers writing in English.
This time he presents Geology With a
Human Face. Here are people versus
nature in extremis — keeping the Mis-
sissippi River from jumping its banks and
bypassing New Orleans, fighting a lava
flow threatening a town in Iceland, and
playing catch with the flood debris that
washes out of the San Gabriel Mountains
and into the streets of los Angeles. His
leisurely assemblage of fact and anec-
dote examines the lives of people caught
in desperate environmental situations,
and demonstrates that the difference
between “‘rational’’ and “‘rationalize’’
often depends on where you live.
—Richard Nilsen
The Control of Nature
John McPhee, 1989; 272 pp.
$1 7.95 ($19.45 postpaid) from
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 19 Union
Square West, New York, NY 10003;
212/741-6900
(or Whole Earth Access).
me
“Those people are crazy.’ He means that
Pasadena Glen has the compact dimen-
sions of a bobsled run, and the disassem-
bling mountains hover above it. He means
that from time to time all hell will break
forth from the mountains. . . . The glen is
so narrow that its houses are perched be-
tween streambanks and canyon walls. The
nearest debris basin is below them, and
therefore not meant to help them. . . .
‘’People come in and live — as we do —
where we really shouldn’t live’” Mel Horton
remarked to me, tendering the explanation
that periods between serious floods are
often long:
“It's a fantastic place to be in a storm,’
his wife, Barbara, said. ‘’You hear a sound
like giant castanets — boulders clicking
together. They’re not pebbles. And there is
a scent, which is absolutely heavenly, of
the crushed chapparal plants. It’s so fra-
_ grant and beautiful it’s eerie to have it
associated with something so terrifying.
And, God knows, it is terrifying.”’
‘So why do you live here?’’
‘‘Freedom,’’ Mel said.
To Govern Evolution
e The End of Nature
The subject matter of these two books
will directly and indirectly dominate poli-
tical dialogue far into the future. Both
authors agree on at least one point:
humanity has irrevocably crossed a line
into a new era for the planet. The entry
into this new era is unwittingly of our
own doing and will have profound con-
sequences for all life. From that point
Walter Anderson and Bill McKibben
diverge. Dr. Anderson, a political scien-
tist, optimistically believes that with the
right political control mankind can still
make the most of ‘shooting the genetic
rapids.’’ McKibben, a nature writer, lays
out a-more detailed case for why, re-
gardless of the decisions we make, we
are all in for a dunking in those rapids.
McKibben splits our choice of paths to the
future into the ‘defiant’ and the ‘‘hum-
ble.’’ Anderson clearly opts for the defiant,
that is, to continue dominating all nature
for our own ends, but to get better at it.
The humble path, on the other hand,
means recognizing that nature (or tattered
remnants of it) has a right to exist for its
own sake. Rather than using our techno-
logical prowess to accommodate an ever-
growing human population, the humble
path advocates controlling population,
undoing past mistakes, and stabilizing
global climate. McKibben’s heart seems
to be with the humble path, but his life-
style, as he admits and Anderson would
insist, is locked into the detiant path
along with the rest of us.
Anderson explicitly advocates some form
of world government as the way out of
our problems, coupled with greater en-
vironmental education of the electorate.
His optimism that the fossil-fuel-generated
lightning bolt of human expansion can
continue into the foreseeable future has
an aspect of religious faith that technol-
ogy and the wisdom to make the right
choices will see us through. Like religion,
‘the catechism of No Environmental Limits
can be used to soothe our fears and justi-
ty our abuses. But even McKibben, with
his pessimistic grasp of the dire straits we
are in, understands that technology offers
our only hope of softening the impact as
we careen into environmental limits. Both
books are worth reading to keep up on
the limits/no-limits debate. —lom Ness
®
We have taken politics to consist of inter-
actions among human beings. . . . Evolu-
tion, on the other hand, has to do with
nature, with plants and animals and their
environments, with a grand sweep of
change that proceeds according to laws
beyond human reach. That is how we think
of the two — and that is the problem,
because the two are now one. They have
flowed together, and there is no making
sense of one without reference to the other.
To Govern Evolution
Walter Truett Anderson, 1987; 376 pp.
$22.95 ($24.95 postpaid) from
Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 465 S.
Lincoln Drive, Troy, MO 63379;
800/543-1918
(or Whole Earth Access).
The End of Nature
Bill McKibben, 1989; 226 pp.
$19.95 ($21.45 postpaid) from
Random House/Attn.: Order Dept.,
400 Hahn Road, Westminster, MD
21157; 800/726-0600
(or Whole Earth Access).
@
The human species has, in a burst of
creativity over the past forty years or so,
transformed its institutions of governance
and brought forth the first world order,
more or less behind its own back.
This is a pretty rickety system, and any
number of things may happen: It may col-
lapse and. take the biosphere with it. It
may turn into a much more unified, even
tyrannical, world government. It cannot,
given the present inertial roll of globalizing
forces, return to a system of autonomous
nation-states. Neither can it, for the same
set of reasons, sort itself out into a system
of bioregional ecotopias. The latter is an
attractive scenario, but not achievable this
side of the population wave, since people
have a tendency to move into your bio-
region if they happen to be starving in
their own. —To Govern Evolution
The idea that the rest of creation might
count for as much as we do is spectacular-
ly foreign, even to most environmentalists.
The ecological movement has always had
its greatest success in convincing people
that we are threatened by some looming
problem — or, if we are not threatened
directly, then some creature that we find
appealing, such as the seal or the whale
or the songbird. The tropical rain forests
must be saved because they contain millions
of species of plants that may have medical
uses — that was the single most common
argument against tropical deforestation
until it was replaced by the greenhouse
effect. Even the American wilderness move-
ment, in some ways a radical crusade, has
argued for wilderness largely as places for
man — places big enough for backpackers
to lose themselves in and for stressed city
dwellers to find themselves.
But what if we began to believe in the rain
forest for its own sake?
—The End of Nature
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 : 5
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“First of all, Indian and European cultures were in direct conflict. One depended upon the woods or plains; the other
upon plowed fields and pastures. One exploited basic natural resources for livelibood; the other relied upon cultivated
crops. .. . The only physical things, in fact, which survived many of the settlers were their cleared and eroded fields.’
BY RICHARD SASSAMAN
Before restoration, there was reclamation, rebabi-
litation, soil stabilization and reforestation; terms
not synonymous, but all containing the idea of
repair or improvement. There was also good old-
fashioned treeplanting. While most 19th-century
Americans were busy felling trees, a few were plan-
ting seeds that would bloom in soils and minds
into the next century and beyond.
Richard Sassaman is a writer who spends a good
deal of time on the road. He last appeared in this
magazine writing about strange doings in the
desert (‘‘Dirty Sock Mineral Springs,’ CQ #25),
He lives in Bar Harbor, Maine.
—Richard Nilsen
j ) WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
’
—Thomas D. Clark, Frontier America (1959)
uropean immigrants to 18th-century America regarded the
great virgin forests they found as ‘‘wild’’erness that had to be
tamed. Trees took up valuable space needed for fields of grow-
ing crops or grazing livestock, and could be turned into firewood, log
cabins, split-rail fences, or crude forts used for protection against the
natives.
This attitude figures prominently in perhaps the first great American
myth, which describes how young George Washington killed his father’s
cherry tree. Invented by Mason (‘‘Parson’’) Weems in 1806 (after Wash-
ington’s death) the apparently simple fiction can be interpreted on
several levels. ‘‘I cannot tell a lie,’ George says, running to his father.
He wants to tell the truth, to chop away at his ‘‘family tree’’ and openly
display rebelliousness. (In the original version, George takes his axe to
an ‘‘English’’ cherry tree.) :
The legend also depicts the ‘Father of his Country’’ on his birthday,
a convenient symbol for the newborn United States. Washington, given
a nice new axe as a present, must immediately make use of it, just as
Americans — given both the technology and the opportunity — felt
they had a ‘‘manifest destiny’’ to civilize the wilderness by cutting
down the forests. |
Under these circumstances, few Americans concerned |
themselves with problems of deforestation. In the early
1680s, William Penn did require that an acre of forest be
maintained for every five acres cleared on lands he
_ granted, but no records show that this provision was ever
enforced.
Another rare conservation incident occurred in 1799 only
for national security reasons, after President of the Con-
tinental Congress John Jay warned that Navy ship timbers
and masts might become unavailable in the near future
unless suitable tall trees remained protected. Congress
authorized President John Adams to spend $200,000 buy-
ing live-oak reserves along the South Carolina and Georgia
coasts, probably the first Federal money spent for pur-
chasing timberland.
Not until 50 years later would the U.S. Patent Office, odd-
ly enough, issue a report dealing with the impact of ac-
celerating forest destruction and its attendant effect on
water flows. The report noted that timber waste in the
nation ‘‘will hardly begin to be appreciated until our
population reaches 50,000,000. Then the folly and short-
sightedness of this age will meet with a degree of cen-
sure and reproach not pleasant to contemplate.’’
The Civil War also provided an impetus for forest protec-
tion, when far-flung military operations both required a
great deal of wood and destroyed much valuable tim-
berland.
Because of these and other warnings — most notably a
paper written by Frederick Starr in 1865 for the Depart-
ment of Agriculture — the importance of tree planting
‘finally caught the public’s interest. Starr, a preacher,
couched sections of his work in apocalyptic language,
warning that ‘‘the nation has slept because the gnawing
of want has not awakened her. She has had plenty and
to spare, but within thirty years she will be conscious that
not only individual want is present, but that it comes to
each from permanent national famine of wood.’’
“Of Jonathan Chapman
Two things are known,
That he loved apples,
That he walked Alone. .
—Rosemary and Steven Vincent Benet,
A Book of Americans (1933)
One early American who never doubted the urgent need
for tree planting in this country, John Chapman of ~
Leominster, Massachusetts, became widely known dur-
ing his lifetime as ‘‘Johnny Appleseed.’’ Although he's
remembered today mostly as a mythical character of
legend, Chapman was real, not an advertising creation
like Paul Bunyan or the Jolly Green Giant.
He stood 5’ 9’’ tall, and had blue eyes.
Born in 1774 (almost simultaneously with
the nation), Chapman soon headed west from
New England. (One of 12 surviving children
from his father’s two marriages, he might have
been looking for peace and quiet.)
Readers seeking the truth about Chapman are indebted
to biographer Robert Price, who spent 25 years on the
pioneer pomologist’s trail separating fact from fiction
before writing his Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth (In-
diana University Press, 1954).
According to Price, ‘‘In spite of all the delightful imagin-
ings by several generations of Johnny Appleseed cultists
. . not a single fact is known today, based on either
record or direct tradition, that will bridge the wide gap
between [his] certifiable origins in [Massachusetts] and
his probable appearance in the upper Allegheny Coun-
try of northwestern Pennsylvania in 1797.’’
John lived in this sparsely populated land for about a
decade. Then, deciding his neighborhood had become
too crowded, he moved on to frontier Ohio, where in ad-
dition to attracting attention for growing apple trees he
became a hero during the War of 1812, warning settlers
against Indian attacks.
_ Ultimately Ohio became overrun with settlers as well (its
population rose from 45,365 in 1800 to 937,903 in 1830),
so Chapman.continued on to northern Indiana. He died
at a friend’s cabin near Fort Wayne in March 1845.
Curiously, the first mention in print of Johnny Appleseed
appeared in England, and for religious reasons. Somehow
he had become an ardent disciple of the Swedish religious
philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (at a time when fewer
than 400 Swedenborgians lived in the U.S.), and often
corresponded with or visited church officials.
The article, published in 1817 in a Swedenborgian Soci-
ety report, began:
‘There is in the western country a very extraordinary
missionary of the New Jerusalem. A man has appeared
who seems to be almost independent of corporal wants
and sufferings. He goes barefooted, can sleep anywhere,
The only exist-
ing drawing of
John Chapman,
1850.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i 7
in house or out of house, and live upon the coarsest and
most scanty fare. He has actually thawed the ice with
his feet.’’
Chapman on his wanderings presented a picture of true
poverty, wearing ragged old clothes while going from place
to place, accepting a meal here or a spot on the floor by
the door there.
Despite this myth of the wandering gypsy, however — and
it is true that Chapman rarely bothered with possessions
— Robert Price followed the historical Johnny Appleseed
through a paper trail of legal documents (land deeds,
loans paid, etc.), as well as frontier diaries and other
writings. Adding up statistics, he notes that ‘‘Altogether
[Johnny] owned either by deed outright or on long-time
leases no less than twenty-two properties totaling nearly
twelve hundred acres.”’
Johnny Appleseed is usually remembered today as an ec-
centric old man; one rumor had it that he’d been kicked
in the head once by a horse, which didn't help his men-
tal stability. “‘He conforms to none of the national ste-
reotypes and illustrates nobody's theories, ' Edward Hoag-
land wrote to explain this common misunderstanding.
Also, Americans today probably don’t understand how
much the early settlers appreciated apples, which in Price’s
(Above) Sixth-grader Richard Sassaman plants an oak
tree at his school on Arbor Day, 1961.
(Right) Richard and the tree today.
} 8 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
words are now ‘‘relegated in normal modern diets chief-
ly to side dishes and casual eating.’’ Apple butter would
keep for winter use, apple brandy was a cash export sent
downriver to New Orleans, apple cider a social favorite,
and apple vinegar the basic pioneer preservative.
But in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
And back then, for almost 50 years in the country of the
apple-hungry pioneers, John Chapman lived like a king.
‘A part of the health of a farm is the farmer's wish to
remain there. His long-term good intention toward the
place is signified by the presence of trees. A family is
married to a farm more by their planting and pro-
tecting of trees than by their memories or their
knowledge. .. .”'
—Wendell Berry,
The Unsettling of America (1977)
By the time early settlers reached the prairies of Illinois,
then continued on to the Great Plains, their attitude
toward trees had changed. Back East the majestic forests
may have been in the way, but Nebraska and Kansas sod-
busters longed for houses made of wood, and for trees
that would provide fuel, give shade, help control soil ero-
sion, and serve as windbreaks.
One early Midwesterner who worked hard to overcome
The Chinese proverb says a person must
do three things to lead a full life: plant
a tree, write a book, and have a child. I
achieved the first of these goals on Arbor
Day in April 1961, when as a sixth-
grader I was chosen to be the ‘‘desig-
nated planter’’ for my school in Har-
risburg, PA.
Back then it didn’t occur to me to ask
why only one student was planting a
tree, while all the others merely watch-
ed. I stood happily in front of news
cameras with the principal and the
PT.A. president, throwing a shovelful
of ceremonial dirt over the roots of a
brand-new oak tree (the symbol of the
PT.A.).
That afternoon I also recited a three-
paragraph speech, a copy of which my
mother never threw away, which some-
one (maybe her) must have helped me
write. Both a remarkable historical
document, and also an example of the
great gibberish people will spout when
urged to do so by ghostwriters, my
speech went like this:
‘‘T am happy to accept this tree on be-
half of the children of Northside School.
We are proud of our parents and teach-
ers for having made this occasion possi-
ble through their interest in us.
‘‘My classmates and I have taken our
roots of learning from this school, and
this regional lack of trees, Julius Sterling Morton, actual-
ly was born in New York State in 1832. Two years later
his family headed west to Monroe, Michigan, and then
to Detroit.
‘Owing to his independence of the constituted author-
ities,’ as the Dictionary of American Biography puts it,
Morton was expelled in his senior year from the Univer-
sity of Michigan. (He later received an A.B. degree retro-
actively.) After marrying at age 22, he celebrated his
honeymoon by looking for a new home in the Nebraska
Territory.
As editor of the Nebraska City News, the area’s first news-
paper, Morton continued his independence of authority.
Inspired by a local group of expatriate Germans who had
emigrated from the treeless steppes of Russia, where the
first ‘‘shelterbelt’’ tree rows had been cultivated, the edi-
tor began tirelessly promoting tree planting among his
fellow Nebraskans. |
‘There is beauty in a well-ordered orchard which is a joy
_ forever,’ Morton once said in an address to the State
Board of Agriculture. Adding that ‘‘Orchards are mis-
sionaries of culture and refinement,’’ he said, ‘‘If I had
the power I would compel every man in the state who had
a home of his own to plant and cultivate fruit trees.”’
)
like the oak planted here today, we hope
to branch out and become sturdier,
stronger, and more useful in the future.
‘‘Years from now, it is our hope to find
a full-grown tree giving shade, beauty,
and symbolic strength to our school.
Thank you very much!
Despite the hogwash, and the fact that
I’m not sure how sturdy and useful I’ve
been myself over the past 28 years, the
tree — now about 40 feet tall — really
has branched out to give shade and
beauty to the school. And despite the
fact that only God can make a tree, and
that I didn’t even dirty my hands plant-
ing it, I’ve grown to think of that oak
as ‘‘mine.’’
Whenever I return to central Pennsyl-
vania I go by to see my tree; during the
breakdown at Three Mile Island a dozen
miles away, I sat in Seattle and worried
about it.
Recently I stopped by Northside again
and visited with current principle Ken
Beard, who’s been there since 1966. We
looked at old photos of people planting
trees, and he told me the school PT.A..,
for at least the last 15 years, has planted
a tree to honor every retiring teacher.
Tree planting is an honorable enterprise,
one that you'll get even more enjoyment
from as the years go by. @
: Richard Sassaman
Perhaps seeking that power, Morton ran for public office
numerous times: territorial legislature, U.S. Congressman,
U.S. Senator, state governor. Sometimes he won, some-
times he lost. Appointed secretary of the Nebraska Ter-
ritory by President James Buchanan in 1858, he served
until 1861, never giving up his interest in forestry.
In January 1872, Morton presented his ‘‘Arbor Day’’
resolution to the State Board of Agriculture. ‘‘Resolved,
that Wednesday, April 10, 1872, be. . . especially set apart
_and consecrated for tree planting.”’
‘To urge upon the people of the State the vital impor-
tance of tree planting,’’ the resolution offered a prize of
$100 to the county agricultural society that planted the
most trees, ‘‘and a farm library of twenty-five dollars’
worth of books to that person who, on that day, shall plant
properly, in Nebraska, the greatest number of trees.’’
Morton named Arbor Day after the Latin word for ‘‘tree.’’
Some members of the Agriculture Board thought his event
should be called ‘‘Sylvan Day,’ but the resolution pass-
ed as written. And on the first Arbor Day, a great suc-
cess, over a million trees were planted by Nebraskans,
unfortunately not including J. Sterling Morton.
The founder, who personally planted thousands of trees
during his lifetime, had ordered 800 saplings specially for
the initial holiday ceremonies, but these got lost tem-
porarily in transit, and didn’t arrive. ‘They will come soon
and then I will put them out,’’ he said resignedly.
Morton spent the first Arbor Day writing to a newspaper
in Omaha, saying, ‘‘There is a true triumph in-the un-
swerving integrity and genuine democracy of trees... .
Trees planted by the poor man grow just as grandly and
beautifully as those planted by the opulent. .. . The
wealthiest and most powerful potentate on earth cannot
hire one to speed its growth or bear fruit before its time.’’
Within a few years Arbor Day had become popular in Kan-
sas, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Ohio as well. During a
remarkable first ceremony held in Cincinnati in 1882,
almost 20,000 young students assisted in planting a grove
of trees, with each tree being named for a distinguished
person. This event more than any other established the
custom of Arbor Day being observed by schoolchildren.
Largely because of his work with Arbor Day, Morton was
named the third U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in 1893,
serving under President Grover Cleveland. He died in
April 1902 at the home of his wealthy son Paul, who
founded the Morton Salt Company.
After J. Sterling Morton's death, his stately home ‘‘Ar-
bor Lodge’ in Nebraska City, on 65 acres planted with
over 160 species of trees, became a Nebraska state park.
Today every state honors Arbor Day during a time best
suited for planting trees, as do 15 countries including
Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, and
the Soviet Union. In 1885 Nebraska selected Morton's
birthday, April-22nd, as its Arbor Day; California chose
March 7th, the birthday of Luther Burbank. National
Arbor Day is observed each year on the last Friday in
April.
In his A Brief History of Forestry (Toronto, 1911), Bernhard
Fernow complained that ‘‘Arbor days have perhaps...
had a retarding influence upon the practical forestry
movement, in leading people into the misconception that
forestry consists in tree planting, in diverting attention
00k Backwar
Articles and Books on
Restoration in CQ and WER
Julius Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day — now observed
in all 50 states and 15 foreign countries.
from the economic question of the proper use of existing
forest areas, [and] in bringing into the discussion poetry
and emotions, which have clouded the hard-headed prac-
tical issues, and delayed the earnest attention of practi-
cal business men.”’
These days the holiday, overshadowed in recent years by
more glamorous events like Earth Day, seems more prac-
tical than ever. Thanks to widespread drought, rain forest
destruction, the greenhouse effect, and global warming,
tree planting has once again become a hot subject.
As J. Sterling Morton explained over 100 years ago,
‘Other holidays repose upon the past. Arbor Day pro-
poses for the future.’ m
ginal (see p. 13] of this issue). An article
on treeplanting cooperatives in the Pacific
Northwest (‘’The Hoedads,’’ CQ #10,
p. 60) also appeared in that same issue.
Peter Warshall’s Watershed Issue includ-
|
HE articles just before and after
this page deal in part with Amer-
ican antecedents to environmen-
tal restoration and with its early
history. This seems a good place
for a look back at our own coverage of
people attempting to help nature heal.
Watching ideas evolve is part of what
makes history fascinating, and in the case
of the two restoration books reviewed
long ago, there hasn’t been anything bet-
ter published since. If your library doesn’t
contain back issues of our magazine, see
p. 14] for ordering information. It was
called The CoEvolution Quarterly (CQ)
20 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
_ when it began in 1974; with its 44th issue
in 1985, the name was changed to Whole
Earth Review (WER).
Malcolm Margolin’s The Earth Manual
was reviewed in CQ #9, p. 34. For be-
ginners, it still has the best exploration of
small-scale restoration techniques. (For
access see next page.)
The single purest vision of restoration is
Jean Giono’s short story, ‘The Man Who
Planted Hope and Grew Happiness,’’
which was reprinted in CQ #10, p. 54. It
is now available on video as an animated
short feature that does justice to the ori-
ed an article called ‘’Healing the land,
The Redwood Creek Renewal Project’
(CQ #12, p. 74), which described itself
as ‘a combination of environmental repair
and economic development.”’ It an-
ticijpates much of what is in this issue.
Robert Horvitz described the transforma-
tion of a rubble-strewn lot in Manhattan‘s
SoHo into a naturally restored “Time
landscape’’ by Brooklyn sculptor Alan
Sontist in CQ #14, p. 58. Horvitz reported
last summer that twelve years later, the
native trees are 30-40 feet high, and
have been discovered by migrating
songbirds. a
In 1980, an interview with ninety-year-
old Richard St. Barbe Baker appeared
(CQ #25, p. 66), two years before his
death. His worldwide advocacy of tree-
planting influenced FDR to create the
Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s,
and also helped establish the concept of
desertification. He lived long enough to
be regarded as an eccentric old man,
but what he spent his life warning every-
one about is today called global warm-
ing. His works are still available (see p.
131, this issue).
That same issue carried an article from
India about soil erosion and reforestation
(“The Subtlest of Catastrophes’’ CQ
#25, p. 72). For an update a decade
later, see page 86 of this issue.
Hugo Schiechtl’s Bioengineering for
Land Reclamation and Conservation
was reviewed in CQ #35, p. 64. It has
the best drawings of restoration tech-
niques and the best photos of large-scale
restoration work world-wide. It is out of
print, and was a long shot to begin with
— a translation from the German of two
books, published in 1980 by the Univert-
sity of Alberta Press in Edmonton. It
deserves to be reissued.
The best way to follow news in this grow-
ing field is by subscribing to Restoration
& Management Notes, which was re-
viewed in CQ #36, p. 6]. For an up-
dated review, turn to p. 57.
In ‘Deforestation in Disguise’ (CQ #37,
_p. 12), a treeplanter questioned the sus-
tainability of the mono-culture tree plan-
tations where he worked, an issue that
still has yet to invade the popular
consciousness.
The final issue of The CoEvolution
Quarterly contained an essay, ‘‘Becom-
ing Part of Gaia’’ (CQ #43, p. 4), that
considered the implications of the Gaia
Theory for the author’s attempt to con-
trol soil erosion.
The ‘Toxic Environmentalists’’ theme issue
of Whole Earth Review included an arti-
cle called ‘‘The Fine Art of Recreating
Meadows” (WER #45, p. 28), which
dealt with techniques for removing erod-
ed foot trails from national parks.
The attempts to combat Dutch elm disease
and restore the American elm by breed-
ing resistant varieties was discussed in
“Resurrecting Elms’’ (WER #51, p. 38).
A brief primer of tactics for getting city
folk to grow trees appeared in ‘’Urban
Tree Planting Politics’’ (WER #53, p. 62).
In 1986 came The Essential Whole
Earth Catalog (still available from us,
$20.00 postpaid). It included a review
of Restoring the Earth, a book of res-
toration success stories by John J. Berger.
For more recent work by him, turn to p. 56.
The best single-handed restoration
achievement story, by a Bermudan named
David Wingate, was called ’’The Res-
toration of an Island Ecology’’ (WER
#60, p. 42). In attempting to save a
pelagic bird from extinction by creating
nesting habitat, Wingate planted over
8,000 trees and completely restored
an entire island. 2
last spring’s issue included two books
with some bearing on restoration. Adopt-
ing A Stream (WER #62, p. 40) explains
how teachers involve school children in
preservation and restoration activities in
Washington state, and serves as a great
model for any place. And Bill Mollison’s
massive Permaculture (WER #62, p.
63), although describing how to achieve
a permanent agricultural system based
on agro-forestry, contains enough tech-
niques and wisdom to make it welcome
on any restorationist’s bookshelf.
—Richard Nilsen
The Earth Manual
(How to Work on Wild Land Without
Taming It)
Malcolm Margolin, 1975; 237 pp.
$8.95 ($12.95 postpaid) from
Heyday Books, P. O. Box 9145,
Berkeley, CA 94709; 415/549-3564
(or Whole Earth Access).
e
Between well-trimmed suburban lawns
_and the vast regions of mountain wilder-
ness, there are millions of patches of land
that are semiwild. They may be wood lots,
small forests, parks, a farm’s ‘’back forty,’”’
or even an unattended corner of a big
back yard — land invaded by civilization
but far from conquered. This book is about
how to take care of such land: how to stop
its erosion, heal its scars, cure its injured
trees, increase its wildlife, restock it with
shrubs and wildflowers, and otherwise
work with (rather than against) the wild-
ness of the land.
Root e20dlng
ee Shaht bulgé 19
id
roo? Collar
at
10 488. frat it
B firmly planted
hold Seedling In
hole. with colar
round [EVe/
Ilustrations from The Earth Manual
University of Wisconsin
BY WILLIAM R. JORDAN III
Bill Jordan is a staff member of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin Arboretum, where be
is editor of Restoration & Management
Notes. He is also a founding member of
the Society for Ecological Restoration (see
p. 57 for reviews). —Richard Nilsen
(Above) The Curtis Prairie, the oldest
example of restoration in the United
States, was reclaimed from farmland
in 1934.
(Below) Labor was provided in the
early days by the Civilian Conserva-
tion Corps. In the summer of 1936,
buckets were used to keep young
plantings alive.
22 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
I ng ES SS Og eis eee ee ee
cological restoration has on-
ly recently begun to attract
the attention of large num-
bers of environmentalists concerned
about the conservation of natural
areas, but neither the idea nor the
practice of restoration are entirely
new. What is now generally regarded
as the first systematic attempt to
restore native ecological communities
on disturbed land began in 1934,
when a faculty committee at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin in Madison pro-
posed developing a collection of na-
tive ecological communities on dere-
lict farmland then being acquired by
the university for an arboretum.
The purpose of this project, as ex-
pressed by Aldo Leopold, who played
a leading role in developing and car-
rying it out, was to establish a collec-
tion of all the ecological communities
native to the area. To some extent this
could be done simply by protecting
existing communities from further
disturbances. But since many of the
original. communities no longer ex-
isted on the site, it would be neces-
sary to recreate them. The attempt to
do this, carried out during the first
half-dozen years by Civilian Conser-
vation Corps enrollees working out of
a camp on the site, and in more re-
cent years by a succession of faculty
and students, has gradually led to the
creation of the most extensive collec-
tion of restored ecological communi-
ties in the world — a total of over
thirty more-or-less distinct communi-
ty types covering roughly 300 acres
and representing all the major com-
munities native to Wisconsin and the
upper Midwest.
For many years the Arboretum serv-
ed as a model and training ground
for the few conservationists involved
in restoration work. More recently it
has played a leading role in the devel-
opment of restoration as a discipline.
Broadly speaking, there have been
two phases to the development of
ecological restoration.
In the first phase, the emphasis was
on the product of the restoration ef-
fort — the restored community as an
object in the landscape. This was on-
ly natural since it is precisely a con-
cern about the quality of the product
(specifically, its authenticity, or re-
semblance to the natural or historic
system chosen as a model) that dis-
tinguishes restoration from other
forms of land rehabilitation. Yet taken
by itself this conception of restoration
is limited in its value as a strategy for
natural area conservation. This point
of view simply ignores what may be
restoration’s greatest benefit — its
University of Wisconsin
4
University of Wisconsin
value to the restorationist as a process,
a way of learning about the system
being restored, and finally a way of
establishing an intimate, mutually
beneficial relationship with it.
This more recent conception of res-
toration began during the late 1970s
as a direct result of our need to ex-
plain the significance of the Arbor-
etum to the public and also to find
ways of maximizing its value as a fa-
cility for teaching and research. In
both areas, the partial artificiality of
the restored communities was some-
thing of an embarrassment. Fifty
years earlier, Aldo Leopold and his
This photo from the 1940s shows a
controlled burn, necessary for the
prairie’s survival. The man on the
left is Aldo Leopold.
colleagues had proposed creating a
collection of communities which ecol-
ogists could then study in place of
their natural counterparts, which
were becoming increasingly rare. The
problem was that even after a half-
century, none of the restored com-
munities was fully authentic, and this
clearly limited their value for both
research and education.
One midsummer day during my first
year at the Arboretum I was walking
on Curtis Prairie, reflecting on its de-
ficiencies and defects, when it occur-
red to me that from a certain point
of view those defects were actually the
most interesting things about the
prairie. If there were still defects in
these plant communities despite de-
cades of our tinkering, perhaps they
were telling us something about our
limitations in understanding them.
Perhaps what was really interesting
here was not the communities them-
selves as more-or-less finished prod-
ucts, but the process of restoring
them. Maybe the best way to learn
about a community like the prairie
was to try your hand at restoring one.
Over the years some of the most in-
teresting research from the Arbor-
etum had been a direct result of the
restoration work, and would have
been difficult or impossible to carry
out in an entirely ‘‘natural’’ land-
scape. An obvious example was the
“‘discovery’’ of the prairie fire back
in the 1940s. Though the prevalence
of fire in tallgrass prairies in historic
times was well documented, its role
in the ecology of prairies was not
clearly understood. Restoration ef-
forts at the Arboretum began without
employing fire, and the results were
highly unsatisfactory. Reintroduced
prairie natives flourished, but so did
a host of weedy, non-prairie species,
which prevented the natives. from
closing together to create a real prai-
rie. Research carried out on the Ar-
boretum prairies soon established the
critical role of fire in the ecology of
the tallgrass prairies of the upper
Midwest.
Along with a number of similar ex-
periences at the Arboretum over the
years, this suggested a pattern in
ecological research in which ideas
based on observation and analysis are
put to the critical test of synthesis.
This soon led to the notion of restora-
tion as a technique for basic research,
a way of raising questions and testing
ideas about the systems being re-
stored. We even coined a term —
‘restoration ecology’’ — to refer to
this approach to ecological research,
and in 1984 the Arboretum spon-
spored a special symposium to ex-
plore this idea as part of the cele-
bration of its 50th anniversary.
Here was a first step toward serious
consideration of the process of resto-
ration and its implications for the
restorationist. The notion of restora-
tion ecology suggested at the very
least that restoration was a powerful
way of learning about a natural sys-
tem, establishing, if you will, intel-
lectual intimacy with it. The next step
was to ask just what kind of activity
restoration is, and to recognize its
affinity with agriculture, medicine
and art. Looking back, I realize that
what we were doing was learning
about the peculiar relationship of the
restorationist to the landscape. We
were looking at the process of res-
toration as a ritual and “‘reading’’ it
to see not just what it accomplished
or produced, but what it expressed
about a person and his or her rela-
tionship to the land.
atching a group of volun-
teers collecting seed on
Curtis Prairie one fall day,
I realized that they were repeating the
experience of hunter-gatherers who
inhabited this area centuries ago, and
who actually, through their hunting,
gathering and burning, had helped
create the prairie communities we
tended to think of as ‘‘native,’’
original,’ or ‘‘natural.’’ At this point
I realized that restoration represents
a reenactment — not only of the
forces that created the communities
being restored in the first place, but
of the entire passage of cultural evolu-
tion, from hunting and gathering
through agriculture, to the analysis
and synthesis of modern science. I
now see restoration as providing the
framework for a system of rituals by
which a person in any phase of
cultural evolution can achieve a har-
monious relationship with a par-
ticular natural landscape.
Looked at in this way, it is clear that
the business of ecological restoration
is much more than a technical and
scientific challenge. It is also a model
for a healthy relationship between
ourselves and nature and, beyond
that, a way of exploring, defining,
and ultimately celebrating the terms
of that relationship.
It is here that I now see the greatest
value of restoration — not in its abi-
lity to transform the landscape direct-
ly (or at least not only in that), but
in its ability to transform it indirect-
ly through the education and trans-
formation of the human beings who
inhabit and shape it. m
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 23
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ON THE WAY TO
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PECTORATION
BY SETH ZUCKERMAN
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COLOGICAL restoration jumped out
of the wetlands and prairies and on-
to the national agenda in 1988, when
the Restoring the Earth conference
drew an overflow crowd of 800 scien-
tists, policymakers, and activists. A
professional society was formed and
‘restoration ecology’ even gained its own entry in The
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. Since the Berkeley
conference, practitioners of restoration have grown in-
creasingly introspective about the proper aims, methods
_ and values with which to pursue the discipline. This arti-
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Al
cle explores some of the pitfalls on the road to lasting ©
restoration.
With two scalping strokes, my hoe slices through a patch of
thick sod high on Bear Trap Ridge. It is mid-February, and
wind stirs the drizzle around this steep grassy hillside on
California’s North Coast. I work among a crew of half a
dozen, reforesting land that ranchers long ago cleared of trees
to create pasture for their cattle and sheep. I shave squares
of grass at their roots so the seedlings we plant will have a
beadstart on their competition. As I move a few steps forward
to the next planting spot, I recall the friends who have scoffed
that such backyard restoration projects are of little significance
next to global problems such as the fraying ozone layer, the
threat of nuclear war, or the greenhouse effect.
This criticism of ecological restoration is common among
Like any good idea just catching on, environmental restoration can
be misused. Progress to one group may look like co-optation to another.
This article explores the motivation behind restoration work and
reveals that both the science and the politics involved require thought-
ful players. |
Seth Zuckerman is an environmental writer living in Petrolia,
California. —Richard Nilsen
24 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
people involved in traditional environmental or leftist
organizations whose scope is the entire country, conti-
nent or planet. As they say, it would take hundreds of
billions of trees over the coming decades to suck carbon
dioxide out of the atmosphere and slow down global war-
ming. But even so ambitious a project would be made up
of smaller parts. One can estimate the number of trees
needed to absorb the carbon dioxide created by a lifetime
of fossil fuel use. For an average resident of the United
States, that turns out to be about 1,500 trees, if they grow
to be a hundred feet tall — as many as I planted in three
days or my speedier colleagues in two.
Perhaps tree-planting is too easy an example of local ac-
tions affecting global problems. Consider instead genetic
diversity, diminishing rapidly as habitat vanishes. In our
watershed, we trap salmon and incubate their eggs to help
a native strain of fish survive. This population of salmon
has adapted to local conditions and evolved within our
watershed separately from its neighbors. Of such little
pieces is the preservation of genetic diversity made. Our
watershed, 92 percent of whose timber has been logged
in the last forty years, is far from pristine. My neighbors
and I face the task of restoring what has been trashed.
Legislation — such as designating a Wild and Scenic River
— may protect larger habitats in one swoop than I can
in my figurative backyard. But living where I do, these
actions are available to me.
We each have our niche: I’m glad that people are doing
battle in the legislative labyrinths, strategizing continen-
tally and thinking globally — as long as they don't tell
me not to act locally. Indeed, what alternatives do I have?
Working full-time for a lobbying or policy-oriented group
would mean leaving the place where I live. Even if I lived
elsewhere, not everyone can enlist in the brigade of full-
time environmental activists. Another option — simply
donating money to support these good works — rings
hollow to me. If that were all I did, I would feel one step
removed from the land, lacking visceral connection to it,
as if I were in a long-distance relationship with the place
I care about. Eco-lobbyists and tree-planters each work
for the planet in their own ways. We must collectively
grasp the computer in one hand and the hoedad in the
other.
A dozen more planting sites laid bare now, I look back and
see that my scalping partner and I have put some distance
between us and the planter who follows behind with the seedl-
ings. As I near the crest of the ridge, I can see across the valley
to the next slope, thickly wooded with Douglas fir and tan-
oak, as this ridge will be in a decade or two. It pleases me
to think that this local project fits into a bigger picture of heal-
ing the earth's atmosphere. But then I remember a patch of
old-growth forest near the headwaters of the watershed, which
is facing the threat of immediate logging. Is it a waste of time
to be out bere planting two-year-old Douglas fir saplings for
the Bureau of Land Management, instead of helping out with
the lawsuit against the timber company to preserve centuries-
old trees?
This is a familiar argument against restoration: to hold
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off putting our energies into it until everything possible
is preserved. Advocates of this position, including such
prominent activists as Sierra Club Executive Director
Michael Fischer, argue correctly that an ecosystem
preserved intact has greater value than a place that has
been restored. Why, then, practice restoration now? Why
not give everything we have to the preservation of remain-
ing wild ecosystems?
One answer is that some restoration can: stave off even
worse damage. Much of the rehabilitation work being
done in logged-over portions of Redwood National Park,
for instance, will keep soil on hillsides to grow trees, grass
and elk, instead of washing into streams and mucking up
the salmon’s spawning gravels (see page 49). It would take
centuries to build that soil back again. Other restoration
work — like David Wingate’s work on Nonsuch Island in
Bermuda (WER #60, Fall 1988) — expands the habitat of
endangered species, thereby preventing extinctions that
might otherwise occur. And restorers typically agree that
restoration must be pursued side-by-side with
preservation.
Another answer lies in the emotional effect of the two ac-
tivities. Restoration gives me a feeling of constructive con-
nection with my home place that no amount of lobbying
can produce. After a day of tree-planting, I feel physical-
ly exhausted but spiritually invigorated. After a day of
writing comments on Environmental Impact Reports, I
feel drained and useless, in need of a good hike. The level
of desperation in the two activities is different, too. If we
lose one preservation battle, we have usually lost for good.
But in restoration, we often have the flexibility to try
diverse ways to reduce erosion from a bare slope, for in-
stance, until we find a way that works. Restoration, says
Peter Berg of Planet Drum Foundation, is like adding a
birthing room to a hospital that had only a trauma center.
Activists and inhabitants alike have taken up this calling
for the long haul. Like cross-country runners, we must
pace ourselves. Unless we care sustainably for the places
where we live, we'll burn out long before the work is done,
and without having encouraged the next generation to
carry it on. Besides, there's a lot to be learned in the
pioneer stages of restoration work. In 2010, when Fischer
says the preservation battles will be over and restoration
should begin, inhabitants of places will have a better base
of knowledge and experience from which to restore if
some of us have already gotten our hands dirty.
High on the ridge, the soil dwindles and my hoe scrapes gravel
with nearly every stroke, no matter bow shallow. Not a great
place to plant a tree, nor a great place to grow if you are one.
The wind blows fiercer up bere, leaving the view as the only
advantage, a skyline of hilltops and ridgelines. I feel lucky
to be able to forge this kind of link with the land, to take part
in returning this land to forest. Some of my friends who live
in the city envy me this opportunity, thinking that nothing
like this is available to them. I keep telling them it's a matter
of finding nature wherever it may be, among the coffeehouses,
bookstores and housing projects.
Restoration is not the prerogative of rural areas alone,
although it may seem a daunting task to metropolitan
dwellers when they see how little of their native ecosystem
remains among the asphalt, tract homes, and shopping
malls. Native prairies have been reestablished in Chicago
and Lawrence, Kansas. Because the native grasslands of
the Great Plains coevolved with fire, restorationists burn
the prairies there every year or two, inside the city limits.
Another indigenous grassland is being painstakingly |
restored by volunteers on the windswept top of Bernal .
Heights in San Francisco. Two small Philadelphia firms,
Natural areas are
where you find
them. San Fran-
cisco’s Bernal
Heights is a grass-
covered rock hill
topped by micro-
wave transmitters.
Volunteers are re-
introducing peren-
nial native bunch
grass species which
were displaced
when the Spaniards
brought annual
European rye grass
200 years ago.
Barbara Pitschel
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 25
Lasting restoration does not attempt to restore an ecosystem
to a particular state; it attempts to restore the processes
of natural succession and evolution that occur in
wild, self-regulating systems.
Sere Ltd. and Andropogon Associates, restore native
woodlands, meadows and stream margins in urban and
suburban environments. Stacy Levy of Sere describes a
lot of her work as ‘‘editing out’’ the exotic tree species
to leave the natives intact and make the habitat more ac-
cessible and less forbidding to people. She has designed
projects such as these for the edges of a main thoroughfare
leading into Philadelphia and for Dupont’s headquarters
in Wilmington, Delaware.
Urban creek projects — alive in cities such as Vancouver,
B.C., suburban Seattle (WER #62, Spring 1989), and Ber-
keley — seek to bring creeks out of storm sewers or con-
crete channels, eventually to flow between banks overhung
with native alders, willows and ferns. The restoration of
the Nashua River in industrial New England has been
chronicled by John Berger in his book Restoring the Earth
(EWEC p. 34).
Not only is urban restoration possible, it holds special
educational promise. Most people on this continent live
in cities. As long as natural ecosystems are excluded from
cities, urban dwellers’ only experience of nature will be
as spectators in zoos and arboreta or on trips to the coun-
try, where they are visitors in an ecosystem far from home.
This distanced relationship is unlikely to lead human in-
habitants to conceive of Nature as being real, or to care
about her as part of themselves; it will not lead them to
membership in the land where they live. Daily contact
could.
After a couple of hours, the planters have run out of trees and
Andropogon Associates
A new gas line crossed a park in Morris County,
New Jersey. Andropogon Associates modified a
tractor’s scoop bucket so it could remove 4-by-8-
foot mats of native vegetation before the trench was
dug. The center photo shows a mat being slid off
its pallet and into its new home on top of the
buried pipe. The left photo shows site work on a
small stream during construction, and on the far
right, the results six months later.
26 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
we hike back to the truck to get more. Sandwiches and ther-
mos bottles appear, and we recharge. After the break, it’s my
turn to plant, and I take bundles of foot-tall seedlings from
the bag and dip their bare roots in water to keep the delicate
rootlets alive. Then up the hill, to get ‘em in the ground and
make those trees grow. Wait a minute. Make those trees growr
I kick myself for the arrogance in that thought. Who do I think
I am, Gaia herselfe
This was not the first time I had been complicit in this
pitfall, the treatment of restoration as an exercise of
mastery over nature. The first restoration article I work-
ed on, in a 1988 Newsweek, proclaimed, ‘‘the fix-it men
of the environment are here,’ as if an ecosystem were a
washing machine or an automobile transmission. The very
word ‘‘restoration’’ carries its share of misleading bag-
gage: the connotation that we can return an ecosystem
to a static state it occupied before human disturbance.
Further, in the usage, ‘‘we restore the stream,’ we act
upon the stream, and the stream simply lies back and is
acted upon. This implied relationship attributes omni-
potence to us and excludes the human actors from also
being transformed and acted upon. It manifests itself in
such locutions as the title of the September 1989 special
issue of Scientific American: ‘‘Managing Planet Earth,’
which imputes to humans the power to manage the planet
— as if the workings of Nature lacked mystery. This at-
titude peaked in Walter Truett Anderson’s 1987 book, To
Govern Evolution (see p. 15). Try these sentiments: ‘‘We
have made the world over once and it is time to make
it over again.’’ ‘‘] am not here to argue that the human
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species ought to take responsibility for evolution on the
planet... . That is not the question before us since we
are already governing evolution.”’
We have little reason to be so confident. Previous attempts
to control the Earth have disrupted natural systems, driven
species to extinction at a rate unprecedented since the
dinosaurs died out, and done numberless injustices to
_ countless human cultures. Stewart Brand once wrote, ‘*We
are as gods and might as well get good at it.’’ I prefer
Anne Herbert’s restatement in The Next Whole Earth
Catalog, ‘‘We are as humans and might as well get used
to it.’ The record of attempted restorations in the next
section suggests that restoring the Earth will not be as
straightforward as restoring a Model T. Let us learn to
work with Gaia, not apart from her. Hominids are but
a blip on the evolutionary landscape; farmland or logg-
ed areas are potholes in the surface of ecological succes-
sion, albeit sometimes gaping ones. One challenge before
restorationists is to blend our efforts with these far greater
forces, and to become a part of them, and not, in the
words of the Book of Genesis, to ‘‘have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over
every living thing that moves on the earth.’’
Hiking along a logged-over creek in California's Mattole
River valley, a student of mine and I pondered the recovery
that had occurred since the forest was cut twenty years
before. Gradually, trees were growing back, shade was
returning to the streambanks, and the creek was clean-
ing out the silt and gravel that had eroded into the chan-
nel. Scars still showed: bare soil, a road slipping into
the creek, a forest dominated by the hardwoods the log-
gers had ignored, instead of by Douglas fir. But it was
clear that, left to its own devices, the watershed would
recover. Fire would beat back the tan-oak and madrone,
stray salmon would recolonize the stream (assuming that
some fish-bearing streams remained on the North Coast),
natural succession would resume where it left off. Perhaps
on its own it would take a thousand years; perhaps with
human help it would only take four hundred.
Does the watershed care how long it takes? Probably not
much. It might help preserve a native strain of some
species, or pull carbon dioxide out of the air sooner if we
actively restore, but the watershed will eventually return
to much the same successional processes if humans walk
away. So why should human inhabitants care? Not so
much because we want it to look better in our lifetimes
or those of our grandchildren, but because the very pro-
cess of restoration heals our relationship to the place
where we live. Try it. Plant a tree on your street. Hear the
rhythms of your life-place, imagine what would harmonize
with them, and do it.
Several of my friends volunteer at Martin de Porres soup
kitchen in San Francisco. Every so often, a new volunteer
arrives who believes that he’s helping the hungry out of
some sort of noblesse oblige. It doesn’t take long before
he realizes that he’s not there to help them, he’s there
to help himself. So it is with lasting restoration as well.
Thwunk! My hoedad sinks a few inches into a patch of newly
bared earth, but not deep enough for the roots of the tree. I
straighten up for another swing of my narrow-bladed hoe. >
Andropogon Associates
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27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 27
Do people lie to you on television about their
corporate activities, so you won't object when they
come to wreck your neighborhood?
People do.
28 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW. SPRING 1990
Thwunk! This time, it goes in more than a foot, up to its hilt.
At least I believe in this, I think. I'm not doing it merely to
create a monoculture of Douglas fir, a timber plantation of
identical trees marching from one ridge to the next. The trees
that used to stand here weren't cleared with the excuse that
they could always be replanted — they were cut and cleared
by ranchers who saw their liveliboods in it, at a time when
American society wasn't thinking about the reasons not to.
One of the deepest, slipperiest pitfalls of restoration is
an attitude that every ecosystem can be replaced. Restora-
tion could thus serve as an excuse to destroy inconvenient
habitats — such as wetlands located precisely where a
developer wants to put an industrial park — because new
habitats could be created elsewhere. Such habitats can
satisfy the demands in the National Environmental Policy
Act and comparable state laws for ‘‘mitigation’’ of en-
vironmental insults.
What’s wrong with thinking one can perform excellent
mitigation? For one thing, it can slop over into the attitude
of mastery over nature described before. Ecosystems are
precious assemblies of life-forms, each uniquely adapted
to its specific site. People fail to acknowledge those
characteristics if they treat a habitat like a house that can
be jacked up and moved to.a new location. It is as if a
doctor suggested breaking someone's arm because, after
all, he knows how to set broken bones. ‘‘The purpose of
restoration is to repair previous damage,’ cautions author
Berger, ‘“‘not to legitimize further destruction.’’
You needn't accept this philosophical argument to deplore
the use of restoration simply for mitigation’s sake. We
are not as gods. We cannot infallibly create new habitat,
nor can we decree that the birds, fish, and invertebrates
will inhabit what we create. After all, our species has
trouble building public housing that anyone wants to live
in. Who will presume to understand other species better
than our own?
Examples abound of misguided, over-trumpeted restora-
Lucius Cabins
Ask a rhetorical question in an advertising
campaign (top), and you are bound to
elicit unsolicited responses (middle and
bottom). Chevron’s ‘‘People Do’’ TV and
print campaign highlights environmental
good works by a caring giant oil company.
The middle reaction is from a Northern
California group opposing offshore oil
drilling; the parody below appeared in
Processed World, a satirical magazine
for post-industrial wage slaves.
The question remains: if you always
assume the worst about corporate public
relations, how do you encourage big busi-
ness to do a better job caring for the
environment? .
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If you do a truly good job of restoring an ecosystem,
_ it will decide for itself what it grows into
after you've gone.
tion projects. In North Carolina, several years after the
apparently successful restoration of a wetland, only a sixth
as much living matter was produced each year as in a com-
parable natural marsh. More disturbing, the species com-
position was quite different — fewer mussels and marine
worms, many more insect larvae and amphipods. So
although the marsh seemed to be restored, it was
ecologically quite different from a natural one. In San
Francisco Bay, restoration projects have flooded non-tidal
salt marshes, destroying one kind of scarce habitat (bad-
ly needed by the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse)
to create mediocre facsimiles of tidal salt marshes. Dr.
Margaret S. Race, writing in the journal Environmental
Management, cites numerous instances of reports exag-
gerating the success of restoration projects. In one case,
a marsh just beginning to be colonized by vegetation and
needing major channel work was characterized as a suc-
cessfully restored waterfront park. Another wetland was
said to ‘‘demonstrate that a marsh can be established in
two years,’ when aerial photos showed an irregular pat-
chwork of planted plots (covering less than a tenth of the
site) and open mud. )
Nor is this inflation of results solely the province of
wetlands restoration. Mineral companies, now required
by federal law to replace topsoil after they strip-mine and
replant the land, boast how much better they perform
than in land-raping days of yore. Chevron's ‘‘People Do’’
advertising campaign touts its mine-reclamation efforts
on land in Utah that it is not legally required to reclaim.
But a shortcoming in Chevron’s work and in much strip-
mined land reclamation is the type of vegetation the min-
ing companies re-establish. They plant grasses, which are
most likely to provide the quick ground cover the law re-
quires, and which do slow erosion from the re-assembled
hillsides. But it will be seventy years before the native
pinon and juniper return to Chevron’s Utah site, accor-
ding to the company’s environmental security specialist
John Laursen. Back east, native trees such as pin cherry
and aspen recolonize some unreclaimed mined land
within a few years, says Assoc. Prof. H. Glenn Hughes
of Pennsylvania State University. But after seeding, grasses
often create tight sod that prevents native trees from
reseeding the site. After eight years, Hughes says, near-
by trees still have not encroached onto the supposedly
restored areas, leaving an ecosystem that is quite different
from what was there before.
With all of these foibles in restoration work, its use as
mitigation must be approached with great caution.
Planted pickleweed doth not a pristine marsh make. Ac-
cepting a restored ecosystem in partial trade for the
destruction of another ecosystem means swallowing a
decline in productivity, a radical change in species com-
position, or the possibility of outright failure. Nonetheless,
lasting restoration has a place in balancing activities that
involve habitat destruction. Homestake Mine has under-
taken a project at its McLaughlin gold mine near Clear
Lake, California, that stands as an example to aspiring
restorative miners. Homestake is responsible for the
management of 10,000 acres, of which only 1,200 are ac-
tually used in mining operations. The land was mined for
mercury for over a hundred years, beginning in the 1860s.
Vast tracts of the native oak woodlands were cut down,
and the streams were fouled with mercury and toxic waste
from the extraction process. The land around the mines
was overgrazed and came to be covered in tarweed and
star thistle, plants that the cattle don't eat.
When Homestake came on the scene in the early 1980s,
it reduced the number of cattle on the land to a sixth of
their former number. It minimized the mine’s impact by
such means as siting the ore processing five miles from
the mine pit to locate the tailings pond over impermeable
_ rock, where its contents wouldn't leach into the ground-
water. Even though the mine moves fifty thousand tons
of rock a day, air-pollution levels are lower than over most
agricultural land, because of stringent dust-control
measures. Skeptics point out, rightly, that Homestake
might have been denied its permits if it didn’t make such
an extraordinary effort, and that the reclamation efforts
on mined land are required by law. But Homestake is do-
ing more than just planting rye grass on the areas covered
by topsoil and waste rock. It hired a local restoration firm
to collect native seed from brush and tree species, and
propagate them on the reclaimed areas. Besides,
Homestake can justly take credit for restoration work
above and beyond what it originally committed to doing,
and for an excellent plan to restore habitat on the land
it manages that is not directly affected by its mine. It
bought some abandoned mercury diggings upstream of
its reservoir that were leaking the metal into the creek
below, and is diverting runoff around it, burying the tail-
ings and revegetating them. ‘‘The staff is proud of the en-
vironmental reputation this mine has,’’ says Ray Krauss,
the mine's environmental manager.
So far, most restoration work is fairly low-key. ‘The
philosophy of our plan is to halt all human intervention
and monitor the consequences of natural succession,’ ex-
plains Krauss. ‘‘Then we see to what extent natural pro-
cesses don’t remedy historic problems, and only then do
we intervene.’ Data from the last few years have convinced
. Krauss to plant riparian vegetation along the margins of
the reservoir; elsewhere, the land already appears to have
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 29
Homestake Mining Company’s McLaughlin gold mine
in Northern California moves 50,000 tons of rock each
day. Much of their restoration work involves stabil-
izing and revegetating these tailings. Going beyond
minimum regulations, Homestake grades to proper
slope (right), then seeds with grass (middle), and
finally plants native shrubs and trees propagated from
seed gathered locally (far right). When the gold is
gone in twenty years, this will all become an en-
vironmental research station.
tremendous value for wildlife: golden eagle, bear, bob-
cat, and mountain lion are seen on the unmined land,
which adjoins a large BLM wilderness study area. Aside
from the exemplary work that Homestake is doing in
reclaiming the land it has disturbed, it shows how some
$2 million of the mine’s $80 million annual revenue can
finance the rededication of a vast tract of land to the wild.
A final note separating Homestake's efforts from mere
mitigation is the intent and attitude behind it: Homestake
is not grudging in its support for the local ecosystem, nor
does it seem to be doing this in a short-term attempt to
manipulate the political process. Instead, it constructively
and generously engages the local biota. At the end of the
mine’s twenty-year lifetime, when the site is dedicated as
an environmental research station (complete with two
decades of baseline data), it will be in much better shape
than when Homestake arrived.
A few trees later, my boedad is once again buried up to its
bilt. I pull up on the handle, widening an underground open-
ing for the roots of the seedling and making sure the soil is
well-loosened. I reach into the bag around my bips and pull
out a tree, green needles above and damp bare brown roots
below. I pull back on the hoedad, opening a narrow slit in
the earth, and twist the seedling as I lower it into the opening
So its roots snake straight down the hole. In a decade, I'll be
able to: see these trees from the porch of the general store. Tree
by tree, we who dwell here are making this our valley, and
the valley is making us its humans. On a less philosophical
plane, we locals are getting the 27 cents for each tree we plant.
With the rise of restoration as a media topic, talk has cir-
culated of a national restoration project, much like the
Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps. It’s fine to
push for state or federal restoration funding, but we don’t
need enlightened technocrats to strategize the recovery
of eroded farmland and depleted salmon streams, all the
while pitying the so-called yahoos whose ignorance caus-
ed these problems in the first place. Such an attitude won't
lead to lasting restoration, and will sabotage the interests
30 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
of all people in restoring the biosphere. Instead, let the
work be directed as much as possible by the inhabitants
of the places to be restored.
One example of the importance of local initiative and par-
ticipation comes from the experience of urban tree
planters. Brian Fewer, former head of urban forestry in
San Francisco, recalls that only half of the street trees
planted under a federal summer-jobs program survived.
Later, when the residents of the neighborhoods took part
in the planting, survival topped 90 percent. This parable
doesn’t mean there is no place in lasting restoration for
outside help. Freeman House (see page 36) describes the
appropriate assistance the Mattole salmon group has
received from the California Conservation Corps and Red-
wood National Park.
A difficulty arises in deciding which ecosystems shall be
restored. In the Summer 1989 issue of Earth Island Jour-
nal, Gar Smith urges an approach of ‘‘environmental
triage’’ — choosing the most important ecosystems and
focusing on preserving or restoring them. Such prioritiza-
tion can help allocate scarce resources more effectively
among different possible projects, but it immediately
raises the question of who is to decide. It’s hard to im-
agine Smith's approach without a centralized decision-
making body that, history teaches us, is unlikely to in-
clude grassroots representation.
This notion of triage fails to take full account of a hid-
den, nearly untapped reservoir of energy that can be
brought to bear for restoration by the inhabitants of places
who are likely to feel an attachment to their homes that
they may not feel to the rainforest or the river delta. The
state bureaucracies had written off the Mattole salmon
runs as too far gone to save. But the people who live here
decided otherwise, and have devoted incredible energy
to the fish, so far staving off the run’s demise.
Smith argues that ‘‘it makes no sense to repaint the kitch-
en cabinets when the house is on fire.’’ Undoubtedly,
St,
major threats to ecosystems — oil spills, climate change,
chemical disasters — need to be addressed while restora-
tion efforts proceed. But some people's role in the fire
brigade will be to restore places near their homes, help-
ing Nature reassemble the biological integrity of their
region. } /
I pull out the blade of the hoedad, and crumbs of soil slide
down into the hole. With the hoedad and then my boot, I tamp
the earth around the tree to make sure no air pockets are trap-
ped near the roots. I stand back for a moment to admire my
handiwork. To my right, a faster planter has worked ahead,
dotting the hillside with seedlings in a neat honeycomb pat-
tern, eight feet between trees. The short green trees in their splot-
ches of bared brown soil look somehow pleasing to my eye. But
what can aesthetics tell me?
If we adopt the goal of restoring the ecological integrity
of a place, aesthetics cease to be useful as soon as aesthetic
judgments cease to coincide with ecological ones. No mat-
ter how many people believe that vast expanses of year-
round green lawn are beautiful, it still isn’t restoration
to establish them in California. Lawns are not part of
California’s natural ecosystem, no matter how much they
tickle American sensibilities. A fifty-year-old Douglas fir
plantation may look attractive to an untrained eye, but
if it replaced a mixed-age, mixed-species forest, it is a poor
excuse for restoration. Rather than throwing out aesthetics
altogether, let us adjust our aesthetic to recognize the
beauty in the landscape that Gaia creates.
That landscape changes continually. A fundamental pro-
blem with aesthetic criteria for restoration is that they can
lead people to treat ecosystems as canvasses for their ar-
tistic visions. People can thus seek to restore the land to
a particular snapshot of ecological beauty from an im-
agined earlier era: before industrial logging, before the
arrival of white settlers, before the diking of the wetlands.
But any such snapshot only existed for a moment in time.
Lasting restoration does not attempt to restore an eco-
Seth Zuckerman
system to a particular state; it attempts to restore the
processes of natural succession and evolution that occur
in wild, self-regulating systems. Consider a meadow that
occupied a certain site in the 19th century when white
settlers first described a place. Fifty years before, it might
have been a beetle-infested stand of pine; it might well
have burned a decade later. Left to natural succession,
and depending on the pattern of fire, it might have
become a brushfield and then a forest within a few more
decades. In a moister climate, the meadow might have
been on its way from lake and bog to forest.
To come on the scene and restore and maintain it as
meadow defies the inherently changing order of nature.
(Exceptions may be appropriate where rare habitats and
the native species they support are in danger of disap-
pearing, if the biome is so reduced or disturbed that new
islands of habitat won't appear.) Attempting to preserve
an ecosystem at a particular state is akin to trying to hold
back a flood with a raincoat. This is a major difference
between restoring an ecosystem and restoring a Victorian
house: You know how you want the house to look, and
what shape you want it to stay in. But if you do a truly
good job of restoring an ecosystem, it will decide for itself
what it grows into after you've gone.
Even though my motivations transcend the merely aesthetic,
something bothers me about what we are doing on this hill-
side. Is it that we are accelerating succession and skipping
the brush stages that often precede forest? No, the forest soil
is still intact despite the clearing. Gazing at the next ridge
over, I notice the species of trees that throng together there
— madrone, tan-oak, canyon live oak. Here we are, planting
nothing but Douglas fir — almost as if we are timber com-
panies with nothing on our minds but future harvest. A
monoculture. Hmm. In all likelibood, I rationalize, not all
of our trees will live, and oak and madrone will eventually
sneak into the gaps between the Douglas-fir. I head on to
plant the next tree. m
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 3 j
eae ere ee ne ePID 8 Le eee
TurNING BACK
THE CLOCK IN
THE FLORIDA
EVERGLADES
BY RANDY WILLIAMS
Only within the last 10 to 15 years has there been
widespread understanding of how the Everglades func-
tions and of its impact on the water resources for all of
south Florida. There are really only two distinct seasons
in this sub-tropical environment, wet and dry. Almost all
of the fresh water for this region begins as rain; 60 in-
ches of rain annually saturates the spongelike peat soil
and overflows the rivers and lakes. Then it starts its slow
shallow trickle south, only inches deep, dropping just one
foot in twenty miles on a path 40 to 50 miles wide, and
finally slipping into Florida Bay. This sheetflow, as it is
aptly called, allows fresh water to filter through the
- Sawgrass and peat, sand and limestone to recharge the
two great subterranean aquifers, the Florida aquifer in the
north and the Biscayne aquifer in the central and south
regions, which are the only sources of drinkable water in
Florida. Countless species of plants and animals depend
on the timely arrival of this water to enrich food and
habitat resources. During the dry season, the process
reverses itself and the soil slowly releases its water reserves,
maintaining this delicate balance between flood and
drought.
The sheetflow is dependent upon the rains; but there is
HERE IS A SAGA UNFOLDING in the state of Florida that will lift the hopes of the
| environmentally conscious worldwide. At the eleventh hour — maybe even the eleventh-
and-a-half hour — under the visionary leadership of the state's governor, Bob Graham,
projects were initiated that are staving off the depletion of fresh-water resources and the
| destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of irreplaceable wildlife habitats in and
1 around the Everglades. Water is the lifeblood of this area. It has always been that way.
strong evidence that the rain is dependent upon the
evaporation of the massive sheet flow, a closed cycle that
is so simple yet so very delicate. In the years since the
natural sheetflow has been dramatically altered by levees
and canals, the rainy season has also been less depen-
dable. Water levels in the great aquifers have dropped at
an alarming rate, and dryer conditions contribute
dramatically to the severity of fires that burn not only
vegetation but also the precious peat soil itself. Additional-
ly, colder weather and killing frosts have crept farther
south each year. As more and more fresh water has been
used from the subterranean aquifers, there has been a
steady encroachment inland of salt water. Once salt water
contaminates a well, it can never be converted back to
fresh water. Historically, the fresh water was so plentiful
in coastal regions that passing ships could stop offshore,
in the Atlantic, and replenish their water kegs from fresh
water springs bubbling up through the salt water.
From Florida's earliest days as a state, the Everglades have
not been fully appreciated. The first legislature in 1845
characterized them as ‘‘wholly valueless’’ and called on
Congress for assistance in draining the swamp. Ironical-
ly, Governor Graham's father Ernest Graham, a former
Restoration work can involve a lot of un-doing, in this case the monomaniacal flood control handiwork of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. Wetlands are very fragile; perhaps this is why south Florida bit the wall, environmentally speaking, sooner than some other
places. The state risked jeopardizing not only its largest industry, tourism, but its supply of fresh drinking water as well. Florida is
responding with policy changes and action at the highest levels, exactly what is required for a problem this extensive.
Randy Williams is a photographer (a refugee from corporate audio-visual work) who resides in West Glover, Vermont, where be also
writes, does carpentry and teaches art. For more information about the Everglades Coalition, contact Theresa Woody, 1201 N. Federal
Hwy., Rm. 250-H, N. Palm Beach, FL 33408.
32 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
- —Richard Nilsen
Randy Williams
oe es ee ee eee ee a Pe
: : \
a ee ee ee ee ee
South Florida Water Management District
captain in the Army Corps of Engineers, was one of the
proponents of a major drainage policy in the 1930s. Severe
floods in 1926 drowned 1,836 people and another in 1947
caused $2.3 million in damages. The devastation gave the
drainage advocates the ammunition they needed to per-
suade Congress to authorize the Army Corps of Engineers
to develop a course of action for flood control. The result
was a massive, ill-conceived ditch and dike program of.
proportions unequaled in the US. Throughout the 1950s
and ‘60s more than 1,500 miles of canals and.ditches were
gouged out systematically throughout the Everglades’
wetlands. Around Lake Okeechobee, the second largest
fresh-water lake within the United States, 106 miles of
35-foot-high dikes with flood-control gates were con-
structed, effectively stopping the natural sheetflow. The
Kissimmee River, with its 97 miles of meandering oxbows,
had for centuries supplied naturally filtered water to Lake
Okeechobee. But the Corps transformed the river into a
54-mile straight-shot channel. Additionally, dikes were
constructed along the Tamiami Trail, US Route 41 cut-
ting through the Everglades from Naples to Miami. All
of this was done under the guise of a ‘flood control pro-
gram.’ And all of this plumbing did its job. The swamps
and wetlands started to dry up, and for the ever-hungry
land developers there were visions of sugarplums. Indeed,
in the 1960s the notorious subdivision, Golden Gate
Estates, was started on the northwest edge of the
Everglades, digging 180 miles of canals to drain 173 square
miles of wetlands. But with no promise of water or sewer
The Kissimmee River used to be 97 miles of mean-
dering oxbows. In the 1960s the Corps of Engineers
transformed it into the 54-mile Kissimmee Canal
C-38. The wetlands dried up and dairy cows replaced
wading birds, whose populations have decreased 90
percent in the last thirty years.
service and a fierce resident mosquito population, only
a small area has been actually developed. The drainage,
however, lowered the water table more than two feet.
Throughout the last three decades the influx of people
into Florida has been phenomenal. It is estimated that
an average of 800 people a day are moving to the state,
and with that growth comes an ever-increasing demand
for space and water. Sewage and solid-waste disposal are
a major concern. Agribusiness, hundreds of thousands
of acres of sugarcane, vegetables and citrus to the south
of Lake Okeechobee, also take a great toll on water
resources, using nearly half of the total water consumed
and dumping millions of pounds of toxic pesticides into
the soil yearly. Much of the excess high-nutrient irriga-
tion water is back-pumped into the lake. Dairy cattle along
the Kissimmee River canal are contaminating the water
with phosphorus-laden manure which shoots right down
into Lake Okeechobee with little opportunity to decom-
pose and to be absorbed into the soil. The nutrient-rich
water has spawned algae and other vegetation that is
steadily robbing the lake of oxygen.
The real problem was that everybody wanted their share
of the water where and when they needed it. The state
established distinct water-management districts to deal
with the dispersal. Schedules were set up and water was
delivered to fill almost every need. If, during the rainy
season, flooding seemed imminent, excess water was
unceremoniously dumped through canals into the ocean.
a
eis
Canal retro-fit: One of three steel weirs installed in the upper
Kissimmee Canal (top). The weirs constrict the flow enough to
back water up into the old oxbows (above). This filters the
water, recharges the aquifer and restores wetland habitat.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 33
South Florida Water Management District
Unfortunately, judicious distribution proved to be a
hopeless task, one that turned into a political power strug-
gle, and the environment ended up at the bottom of that
barrel. Natural water levels in and around the Everglades
fluctuated drastically according to domestic and agri-
cultural needs outside of those areas. Consequently,
breeding and nesting areas were either too wet or too dry,
and dependent animal populations steadily declined.
All of this ‘‘management’’ of the water and wetlands has
devastated much of the natural ecosystem in and around
the Everglades. It has been estimated that over the last
thirty years, the wading-bird population has dropped by
90 percent. This is largely due to unnatural fluctuations
in wetland water levels that flood nesting sites. Residen-
tial and agricultural expansion has pushed wildlife into
smaller and smaller areas. This loss of habitat is the main
contributing factor threatening already endangered
species such as the Florida panther.
OB Graham grew up on the edge of the Ever-
glades and witnessed firsthand the evolution of
the problems it now faces. His family’s dairy farm
was tenuous business during the 1940s and '50s. Wetlands
and periodic flooding were obstacles to be overcome, not
compromised with. Growth and prosperity were the good
guys and the swamp the bad guy, waiting ominously just
on the other side of the ever-expanding fence line. But
Bob proved to be a different breed of Graham, realizing
that nature was more than just a menace to progress. ‘'I
guess I am less likely to agree with my dad that the way
to solve a problem is to alter nature.’’ Bob reflects, ‘*My
experience is quite typical of others who have spent a life-
time in South Florida: incremental, unnoticed change,
then a jolting awareness of what had happened.’ As a
state senator he gained a reputation for environmental
conservation. Elected governor in 1978, he started rebuild-
ing the state's political structure to loosen the deathgrip
that agricultural and development interests had on water
management. In 1986, Bob Graham was overwhelmingly
elected to the U.S. Senate, where he continues to cham-
pion the cause of water and environmental rehabilitation
in Florida. His successor to the governor’s post, Bob Mar-
tinez, has not only continued the environmental program
but expanded it to include the cleanup and protection
of Lake Okeechobee and to regulate the development of
citrus land conversion in southwest Florida.
Even though the state enacted laws protecting various
aspects of the water and land usage, they were not broad-
based enough to reverse the damage that had been done.
Environmentalists and conservationists had organized
their efforts and, with the public sentiment shifting in
favor of wildlife conservation, politicians were made aware
of the dire situation that had been created. In 1983 Gover-
nor Graham initiated a bold new environmental program
that would preserve and expand what remained of the
State's fresh water resources and revitalize the diversity
of wildlife habitats in and around the Everglades. The Save
Our Everglades program took a comprehensive, holistic
approach to a very complex problem. It was, and is, at-
34 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
tempting to undo many of the short-sighted environmen-
tal travesties that have taken their toll on this delicate
ecosystem in the name of progress and growth since the
early 1900s. In the words of Governor Graham, *“‘Our goal,
by the year 2000, is to have the Everglades look and func-
tion more like it did in 1900.”
Initially, there were six major elements to the program:
1. To reestablish the values of the Kissimmee River and
its floodplain; 2. Restore and protect the 95-square-mile
area north of and adjacent to Water Conservation Area
3 in Palm Beach County; 3. Manage the deer herd in Water
Conservation Area 3 just west of Fort Lauderdale; 4. Im-
prove the hydrology along the Tamiami Trail and Alligator
Alley, which connects Naples and Fort Lauderdale; 5.
Restore the natural hydrology of the Everglades National
Park; 6. Protect the Florida panther and other endangered
wildlife.
Graham realized that in order for such a grandiose plan
to have any chance of success, he would have to appeal
to the hearts and minds of the people of Florida. And
that he did, with the support of local, state and national
environmental organizations. He took his message of con-
servation and preservation to the news media. Throughout
the program the people have been well informed of the
progress and how much its success will affect their fu-
ture. They have also been apprised of the practical as-
pects of saving the Everglades and other nature habitats.
In addition to providing drinking water, the Everglades
system is a major tourist attraction. Tourism is Florida's
most important and profitable industry, bringing in ten
times the dollars that agriculture does.
Governor Graham secured the participation of over 20
state and national environmental groups, including Na-
tional Audubon, Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society,
in an effort to overcome the many public, legal and
political obstacles that such a controversial multifaceted
program encompasses. In 1984 these organizations formed
the Everglades Coalition to coordinate efforts on the state
and federal levels in promoting action from a maze of
government agencies. The Coalition lobbies state and
federal officials, including the president, testifies for pro-
grams before congressional hearings and subcommittees,
initiates litigation if necessary, and promotes public
awareness of environmental issues through each organiza-
tion’s publications and newsletters. Thanks to the tireless
efforts of environmentalists such as Marjory Stoneman
Douglas, whose 1947 book, The Everglades, River of Grass,
eloquently predicted the current crisis, public awareness
and political action are beginning to turn back the clock
for the Everglades.
Much has been accomplished in the six years since the
program's inception. Although the vast majority of energy
is spent on political and legislative administrative fronts,
the tangible results of the program are quite impressive
as well. Three steel weirs, or partial barriers, have been
installed in the northern section of the Kissimmee canal.
The weirs constrict the flow of the canal, allowing water
to flow back into the original river channel. This project
has restored about 12 miles of the river and 1,300 acres
i le ee ee
ese
Florida Game and Fish Commission
From Naples to Fort Lauderdale, State Road 87 is known as Alligator
Alley. Its replacement by Interstate 75 includes thirty-six underpasses
like this one, strategically placed to permit water flow and provide
safer crossings for wildlife.
of river marsh and valuable wetland habitats. During the
rainy season, thousands of acres of the historic floodplain
are again flooded. Of the 50,000 acres needed along the
Kissimmee to complete the project, 21,500 acres have been
procured by the state.
The increased concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen
in Lake Okeechobee over the past twenty years have
spawned the growth of algae and other vegetation that
deplete the water of oxygen. This eutrophication threatens
the entire food chain in the lake. New waste-management
practices by dairy farmers along the Kissimmee and the
reduction of the backpumping of nutrient-rich water in-
to the lake from agricultural interests south of the lake
have greatly decreased the influx of these contaminants.
Although the lake is under a strict monitoring program,
results from these projects are going to be slow. Other
cleanup measures are in the legislative stage. Bass
fishermen have organized to assist in the planning and
promotion of water quality on the lake.
Land acquisition is a big part of the master plan. In the
water conservation areas south of Lake Okeechobee and
west of a strip stretching from West Palm Beach down to
Miami, the state has been negotiating to buy nearly 90,000
acres of private land. This area, which has suffered from
overdrainage and peat fires, would be converted back to
its wetland state to help replenish a more natural sheetflow
_ supply to the Everglades National Park. A 3,700-acre tract
has been approved for use as a biological filtration system
for runoff water entering the area. Undeveloped land in
the Golden Gate Estates is also being purchased, to be
converted back to a wetland environment. An innovative
proposal by the U.S. Department of the Interior, in con-
junction with Collier Enterprises and the Barron Collier
Company, would exchange about 108,000 acres of
wetlands for 68.4 acres in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
A similar swap, land that had been slated for the ill-
conceived Aerojet Port in the southeast Everglades, was
made for some federal property in Nevada.
The conversion of Alligator Alley to Interstate 75 with the
inclusion of strategically placed water and animal under-
passes is well underway. The underpasses will allow a
more natural water flow into the Everglades National Park.
The highway runs east from Naples through the Fakahat-
chee Strand and the Big Cypress National Preserve, which
Somewhere between thirty and fifty extremely
reclusive Florida panthers are left in the entire
state. This one was hit by a security vehicle at
the Fort Myers airport. Nursed back to health
by the state’s Panther Recovery Team (and fitted
with a radio collar), it is being released at the
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, owned and oper-
ated by the Audubon Society.
are the primary ranges for the endangered Florida pan-
ther. In 1982 a vote by Florida schoolchildren selected the
Florida panther as the state mammal. Because the pan-
ther’s natural range crisscrosses over major traffic arteries,
several animals are killed or injured each year. Road signs
and speed zones have been installed to alert drivers.
In April of 1989 Senator Graham introduced the
Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion
Act’’ which, if passed, will add nearly 110,000 acres to
the eastern edge of the park. [The bill passed and was signed
into law in December, 1989 —Ed.] Experimental water-
release programs are attempting to restore the hydrological
balance to the park, which is also part of the range of the
panther. With less than 50 of these reclusive animals re-
maining, a Panther Recovery Team has been formed by
the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission to gather
data and study their habits. Twelve cats, either captured
or found injured and nursed back to health, have been
fitted with radiotelemetry collars and released. Now their
movement can be monitored from the air. The Commis-
sion is also conducting a captive breeding program.
The Everglades is a precious place of unique beauty and
wonder. It is a self-contained ecosystem that, given the
chance, can serve man and nature, but it has a delicate
vulnerability. It presents, in microcosm, all that is good
and bad about the way we are treating our planet. We can
alter and exploit the environment only so much before
the systems collapse. The Save Our Everglades initiative
is a program of long-term preservation. Without it there
would soon be no Everglades, no clean fresh water, no
agribusiness, and only a few people. It is a program of
hope. #
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 35
Betsy Day
Gg iow
RR ZASER
\ AES
IGRZ
f
HE MATTOLE RIVER runs coastwise south to
north for 64 miles, through a wrinkle in the North Amer-
ican crust formed as the Pacific plate collides with it and
dives, pushing up the King Range. Just to the north is
Cape Mendocino, California's westernmost point, where
the Japanese and California ocean currents meet. Under the
: sea near the mouth of the Mattole, three fault lines meet to form the
n Triple Junction, the most seismically active spot in the state. The coast
\*.
LY Ae
2 ss
3) ntites
aK
; road from San Francisco to Portland takes a major detour around this
p o rough terrain; it’s an hour from any major highway to most parts of
The Things the Mattole. Redwoods grow in its fog-washed headwaters, and a rich
mixture of Douglas fir and hardwoods elsewhere. Of the 2,000 or so
W r people living here now, some two-thirds of them have migrated here
e Need in the last twenty years, as large sheep and cattle ranches have been
subdivided into homesteads.
~ a8
In the late seventies, a few people began to observe that the native
To Know Mattole king salmon population was diminishing in an alarming way.
In recent memory it had been the local custom to gather the few large
fish it took to make a winter’s supply from a migration that arrived
Enga ing The Particulars each November and December in seemingly limitless numbers. Now
Sing only the hardiest of outlaws was gaining occasional protein this way.
Ot The Planet’s Recovery The Mattole run was one of the last purely native ‘‘races’’ of salmon
. in California, largely because the river was so remote that the state
Department of Fish & Game (DFG) had never gotten around to stock-
ing it with hatchery fish. In valleys where salmon run they play a large
“BY FREEMAN HOUSE and dramatic part in the spectacle of life. Their value as food only
Our ancestors never did get good at living in harmony with the land. With such an immense continent to settle, they never had to. Today,
warning lights flash at almost every turn and that brash ‘I'll do it myself’’ pioneering gumption is more of a hindrance than a help;
yet it persists as a vital part of who we are. This article describes a rural community busy redirecting that Daniel Boone spirit to make
living on and from the land feasible into the 21st Century. Here restoration is the essential first step in a concurrent process of social
and economic transformation.
Bioregionalist Freeman House lives in Petrolia, California, where he is co-founder with David Simpson of the Mattole Watershed Salmon
Support Group and an employee of the Mattole Restoration Council. —Richard Nilsen
36 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
el hr
Janet Morrison, chairwoman of the Mattole
Restoration Council, surveys late winter flood-
waters on the Mattole River in 1985. Bank
failure threatens the county road behind her,
the main artery in the valley. With funding
from Humboldt County and the California
Coastal Conservancy, the Restoration Council
riprapped 375 feet of this bank the following
summer, using a row of five-ton boulders for
a base. —
begins to justify the depth of feeling that some people
have for them. People who wouldn't dream of eating them
get moon-eyed at spawning time, and will sit quietly in
a drizzle for longer than is reasonable in order to see one
jump. It became vitally important to some people in the
Mattole valley to attempt to reverse the decline. It was
important in terms of maintaining this most visible
celebration of the mosaic of wild life in the valley, and
it was important to maintain this remnant of genetic diver-
sity for the health of all Pacific salmon. The response was
to take it on, to attempt to puzzle it through, to learn
whatever needed to be learned to make the king salmon
population viable once more.
The few people who undertook this challenge made up
for their small numbers with a large name — the Mattole
Watershed Salmon Support Group. They were flying in
the face of the common wisdom of the time, which was
laced with despair. In the two decades between 1950 and
1970, something more than three-quarters of the Douglas
fir and redwood trees which held the watershed 's slopes
in place had been cut for timber. Enormous amounts of
bare soil had been exposed to disastrous amounts of rain-
fall. Starting in the flood year of 1955, hillsides began to
slide into the river system, a process which continues as
much as twenty-five years after the original logging dis-
turbance, as root wads rot and cease to lend their tensile
strength to steep slopes. Deep pools and channels in the
river had filled up with silt; the river jumped its banks,
taking out whole stands of riparian growth which had
shaded and cooled the water.
The clean gravels that salmon require for spawning and
the deep pools the young fish needed to grow in were
gone, and anyone with eyes for it could see the destruc-
tion in the new broad and cobbled floodplains in the
lower stretches of the river where farmland had been.
This was the source of the despair; the processes that had
been cut loose by the too-rapid deforestation of the basin
were apparently too huge to be engaged by humans with
fragile limbs and frugal means. Most people were willing
to ride out their assumption that nothing much could be
done. If we were willing to make fools of ourselves, we
would be given the opportunity, but not much else.
The salmon group worked from the assumption that no
one was better positioned to take on the challenge than
the people who inhabited the place. Who else had the
place-specific information that the locals had? Who else
could ever be expected to care enough to work the spo-
radic hours at odd times of the night and day for little
or no pay?
Working symptomatically, we discovered a low-tech de-
centralized tool in the streamside salmon incubator used
previously in British Columbia and Alaska, which treated
the problem of silted-in gravels by imitating the ideal
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 37
Randall Stemler
Wildlife of the Rivers
natural situation. These incubator systems — or hatch-
boxes, as we were quick to call them — fed filtered water
from the client creek through select clean gravels in a box
the size of a pickup truck toolbox located by a creek in
a neighbor’s yard. Cheap to build, without moving parts
or external sources of power required, the hatchboxes
proved to be relatively trouble-free. They could accom-
modate as many as 30,000 fertilized eggs and consistent-
ly deliver a better than 80-percent egg-to-fry survival
rate — compared to less than 15 percent survival in the
mud-stricken river.
If we were to maintain the native adaptations of the
populations we were hoping to enhance, we would have
to take our eggs from native stock in the wild, rather than
accept eggs from another watershed or from homogen-
ized hatchery stock. It was around this idea that we first
began to encounter official resistance to the notion of
locals and non-professionals dealing directly with nature.
It was difficult for the DFG to break precedent and allow
non-licensed civilians to put a net or trap in fresh water,
a procedure heretofore strictly forbidden to non-agency .
38 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
personnel; and even more difficult for some (though not
all) agency-employed biologists to accept the possibility »
that non-credentialed locals might be able to handle some
of the field work that had been their province only. There
was one point in our negotiations when one of the more
stiff-necked wildlife managers was insisting that we need-
ed a fisheries biologist to drive any truck transporting live
fish. Our quest for legitimacy finally took us to the office
of California’s then-Secretary of Resources, Huey John-
son, Huey took a chance on us. A year and a half after
the salmon group had first approached the state, we were
ready to put away our briefcases and put on chestwaders.
When they leave the Mattole for the open sea in the late
spring or early summer of their first year, it takes as many
as 200 king salmon to make up a pound of salmon flesh.
When they return as adults after spending three to five
years in the Pacific, one fish often exceeds twenty pounds
and an occasional one may approach forty pounds of
muscle, will, and utterly exotic intelligence. We had ar-
rived at an agreement with the state which allowed us to
capture twenty female salmon, each one carrying three
to five thousand eggs, and enough males to fertilize them.
The spawners run upriver in mid-winter, preferring the
obscurity of muddied, rising water, the obscurity of night.
A trap and weir close off the river, but only temporarily.
Once the waters rise to a certain point, the structures must
be moved out of the channel or they will be washed away.
Once trapped, the salmon must be moved to safety and
held until the eggs are ripe and ready for fertilization.
To enter the river and attempt to bring this strong creature
out of its own medium alive and uninjured is an oppor-
tunity to experience a momentary parity between human
and salmon, mediated by slippery rocks and swift cur-
rents. Vivid experiences between species can put a crack
in the resilient veneer of the perception of human dom-
inance over other creatures. Information then begins to
flow in both directions, and we gain the ability to learn:
from salmon, from the landscape itself.
The first thing we learned from salmon was the impor-
tance of the watershed as a unit of perception. If salmon —
organize themselves so clearly by watershed, wouldn't it
make sense for us to organize our éfforts similarly? Sal-
mon are not only creatures of unique watersheds, adapted
so that generation after generation responds to the tim-
ing and flow of utterly specific rivers and tributaries —
but they are also dependent on watershed processes in
general. During their reproductive time in fresh water,
salmon live at the top of the aquatic food chain, but at
the bottom, so to speak, of fluvial and geological proc-
esses. The success of incubation depends on the availa-
bility of river bottom gravels free of fine sediments. The
survival of juveniles depends on the presence of cold deep
pools cut down to bedrock.
In the Pacific Coast Range, new mountains are still rising
out of the ocean bottom at the rate of two to four meters.
per millenium, and the soft sea silts have rarely had time
to metamorphose into competent rock which might stay
in place against the winter storms that wash most of the
: uplift back to sea. A ten-year storm, combined with any
| one of the frequent earthquakes which inform this coast,
) can cause a landslide which will change the course of the
_ river and alter the pattern of salmon reproduction for
several human generations. Combine these conditions of
the fundament with a ranching technology that requires
a few hundred feet of dirt road for every head of stock;
_ with a timber economy that makes it cheapest to build
a road to every tree and remove all vegetation from the
slopes; with a homestead ethic that can rationalize miles
of benchcut road to protect the privacy of each and every
American home, and you have a recipe for the kind of
catastrophic impacts we were observing.
To nurture the health and natural provision of the wild
salmon population, the salmon were telling us, we were
going to have to understand them as an integral part of
their habitat, and that habitat was the entire watershed,
| extending all the way to the ridgelines above us, including
the human settlements. In order to address the aquatic
: habitat, we would need to keep the topsoils on the slopes
} where they could grow forests and rangeland ecosystems,
meat and vegetables, and out of the streams, where they
killed fish. We would need to attempt to reduce the Biologist Gary Peterson milks milt from a male king
amount of silt entering the riverine system each year to salmon into a bucket containing roe from a single
below the amount which winter flows were able to flush ARH Se RAE Amare ROSSENIE ECHR ATS, 19
provide optimum genetic diversity, milt from several
out. Above all, as humans, we needed to learn to take males is used for each female. Water is then added to
our meat and wood in ways that didn’t cancel out the the eggs and they are placed in an incubation box.
potential for natural provision and other relationships
Mattole Salmon Group
The author inside a homemade salmon trap
in the Mattole River in December. Spawning
salmon migrating upstream are guided into
the trap by a weir that fences off the river.
The Salmon Support Group traps only about
five percent of each year’s run. The screen on
: top of the trap keeps salmon from jumping
: | : .out, and prevents otters, herons and raccoons
from getting in.
Judi Quick
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 39
within our own habitat. Finally, the salmon were telling
us, what was good for them was good for us. Both species
benefit from healthy watersheds and an extended sense
of commonality. ‘‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ they were
saying, ‘‘please, let’s get serious about this business of
coevolution.’’
Bioregionally, there are numerous ways to define ‘'your’’
part of the planet — physiographic areas, the ranges of
species of plants and animals, climatic zones, human
language groups. Ecological responsibilities, in individual
or social terms, can be most successfully undertaken in
the context of specific places. The human organism de-
mands, finally, that its intuitions and ideas become em-
bodied through physical perception, and the landscape
surrounding generally offers us the best proof of our im-
mersion in biospheric life.
In this case, the range and requirements of a particular
race of salmon had defined a context for our efforts, and
the 306-square-mile watershed of the Mattole offered a
scale in the range of the possible. If the experience of the
whole place remained beyond the perception and under-
standing of any one person, the drainage divided itself
into more than sixty tributaries, many of which were
home to groups or individuals interested in the demands
of stewardship, and interested too in the possibilities of
an identity extending beyond parcel boundaries.
The attempt to engage ourselves with a salmon run shifted
almost at once from a symptomatic, technical-mechanical
approach to a systemic, multi-leveled, ecological ap-
40 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
proach. Focusing on the crisis of another species had
boomeranged into the need to take a close look at our
own social organizations and economic activities. This
latter was no new insight, of course. The same conclu-
sions had been reached by everyone from the United Na-
tions to Earth First!. The difference was the conviction
that through engaging the fundamental processes of a par-
ticular place, we might discover the appropriate models
for our own activities and organization. Adopting the con-
ceit that our restoration and enhancement projects would
hasten the process of watershed recovery, those same proj-
ects might be the very means by which we learned what
we needed to know in order to live integrated lives in
living places.
What easy rhetoric! What facile promises! The long list
of skills required for the task quickly turned our leap of
consciousness into a scramble for data. But to my sur-
prise and pleasure, much of the expertise we thought we
lacked was found among the 2,000-plus people already
living in the watershed. Some of my fondest memories
are of whole days spent once a month by twelve to twen-
ty people, training ourselves for the initial job of inven-
torying salmonid habitat.
A consulting biologist living on Mattole Canyon Creek
gave us lectures on Odumesque energy budgets that were
full of sunlight, nearly understandable, and wholly in-
spirational. A self-trained naturalist gave us descriptions
of mycorrhizal relationships so rhapsodic that some of
us fell in love. When the information we needed wasn't
Riprapping riverbank near the headwaters of .
the Mattole. This is one of 17 sites, all visible
from the county road, where stabilization was
done by member groups of the restoration
council. All rock was positioned by hand, in a
kind of large-scale drywall masonry, and has
become a source of pride for local residents.
Judi Quick
y
.
r
7
available in the neighborhood, we never had to go far to
find a helpful technician: biologists from the DFG, a geo-
morphologist from the Forest Service, and most especially
geologists and hydrologists from Redwood National Park,
that planet-class laboratory in landscape rehabilitation
only a hundred miles away. The agencies proved rich in
this kind of talent, and were sometimes cooperative to
the point of dipping into small public-relations budgets
to send their people our way during working hours. Of-
ten, too, the scientists showed up on weekends, anxious
to share and test their ideas in the field.
Most of the skills we needed were gained more by exper-
ience than training or education. For all the headiness
of ecological relationships and hydrological theories, for
all the stretched mental landscapes of geological time,
when it comes right down to engaging watershed recovery
processes, you'll most often find yourself with a shovel
in your hand or in conversation with a backhoe operator.
The great days of the worker-owned tree-planting co-ops
were past, diminished by hostile legislation, but some of
the workers were still around, and no one is better fitted
to organize a large-scale treeplanting or take on the risks
and intricacies of a government planting contract.
As the physical effort grew, with crews engaging in salmon
enhancement, habitat repair, erosion control, and re-
forestation, the need arose for a new sort of organization
based on watershed priorities. On one level it had to serve
the interests of various factions among the human com-
munity interested in engaging recovery, including groups
organized around specific tributaries, groups organized
around jobs, land trusts, and schools, plus civic groups
devoted only peripherally to land-based issues. The larger .
need, however, was to invent a process for developing a
The Wilder Shore
shared perception of the real ecological parameters of
our riverine watershed, to make long-range plans, to make
consensual decisions about projects and, increasingly, to
take positions on complex issues.
Which should be approached first — the accumulated
sediments choking the estuary, or the new sediments
being introduced upstream?
(Answer so far: both.)
If habitat recovery can’t be monitored, how many addi-
tional fish should we be introducing?
(As many as we can without violating our general guide-
line of closely imitating natural processes.)
Knowing that less than 10 percent of the original forest
complex remains uncut, should we risk assuming a high
moral ground we have no way of implementing by call-
ing for a moratorium on the logging of ancient forests,
and thereby risk alienating the largest private landowners
in the watershed?
(Yes. )
The Mattole Restoration Council was formed to serve
these ends, a consensual council with thirteen member
groups at this writing. Monthly meetings rarely manage
to remain serene deliberations on the ecological para-
meters of the basin, however. The Council has, over the
years, arrived at a position which recognizes the need for
localized ecological reserves, based on the perception that
genetic diversity is more site-specific than is generally
assumed, and on the exact knowledge of how little of the
original forest and range complex is left. At the same time,
the Council embraces a vision of the most desirable future,
wherein productive lands stay in production; forests con-
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 4 '
tinuing to produce timber and fisheries, rangeland con-
tinuing to provide forage, and stabilized agricultural lands
producing farm products.
The need for reserves outrages industrial timberland own-
ers, and the desire for an economically productive land-
base over whch local residents maintain some control
makes environmentalists jumpy. Often the Council finds
itself stretched thin; monitoring and resisting industries’
and government agencies’ desire to harvest every mature
tree, at the same time as it is participating in a statewide
attempt to invent a set of sustainable and restorative forest
practices. Either one of these processes will eat up a lot
of volunteer time, and they present themselves over and
above the Council's stated goals of supporting a certain
level of active rehabilitation work, of attempting to meet
contract deadlines, and of developing and distributing the
baseline information we need if we are to engage our
watershed in a manner which restores it to previous levels
of health and productivity.
The process of researching the biotic and geological re-
alities of natural places is likely to surprise anyone under-
taking it for the first time. Our own experience has led
us to describe watersheds and other natural areas as un-
claimed territories, so sketchily are they documented.
When the DFG first opened its files to us in 1980, we were
disappointed to find how scanty the salmonid habitat data
for the Mattole River was, but not surprised once we came
to the realization that two counties with a combined area
the size of Delaware were being monitored by a single
biologist. If we were to approach the restoration of native
salmon populations in any sort of systematic manner, we
would have to do it without historical baseline data, and
in order to understand the current situation we would
have to generate the data ourselves. Later, when we need-
ed to understand just how much old-growth forest remain-
ed in the watershed, we encountered a similar situation.
Antagonistic theories and counter-theories about how
much ancient forest was left were getting a lot of press
space, but when we took a closer look, no one knew what
was out there. (A little later, the U.S. Forest Service found
itself with the same problem.)
In both these cases, we were able to find some support
for finding out, and we were faced with the choice of hir-
ing professionals to do the surveys, or training local resi-
dents. Either option would cost about the same, the added
local knowledge balancing out the cost of training ama-
teurs in survey techniques. We went with the locals, rea-
soning that as a watershed population we would have
gained an array of skills that had a value beyond the data
we would collect.
Even when the information you need is available, it will
almost always be in the wrong context if you are filling
in the map of a natural area. No wonder people find
themselves alienated from planetary processes, when all
the information for their part of the planet is filed by
township and range, rather'than river and mountain. The
Mattole watershed, for instance, extends into two coun-
ties, two jurisdictions of the DFG, and overlaps with about
half of a Bureau of Land Management holding. Research
42 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
the distribution of a species and you'll find the data laid
out for the state of California, in an amalgam of ranges
and townships, rather than in an intertwining complex
of habitats. Try to find out who-all lives in the Honeydew
Creek drainage. You'll find the owners listed alphabet-
ically, rather than by where they live. And so on.
By spending the time to reorganize biotic, geologic, and
demographic information into a watershed context, we
are ritually reanimating a real place that had become to-
tally abstracted. Our maps of salmonid habitat, of old-
growth distribution, of timber harvest history and ero-
sion sites, of rehabilitation work, our creek addresses for |
watershed residents; all these become, when distributed
by mail to all the inhabitants, the self-expression of a
living place.
The hatchbox program is entering its tenth year now, and
it has not been the quick fix our early naivete allowed
us to hope for. The salmon population turned out to be
even more diminished than we had guessed. If we aren't
yet able to put a number on the volume of Mattole top-
soil that is delivered to the Pacific each year, we do know
where it’s coming from, and where in the river it is tend-
ing to settle out, jamming up biological and hydrological -
processes. Thousands of trees have been planted, thou-
sands of tons of rock moved to armor gullies and stream-
banks. A whole generation of elementary-school kids has
released a lot of salmon into the wild as part of each of
their eight school years. Some of those kids have gone .
on to attend a recently established watershed-based high
school where, among other things, they learn local-appro-
priate land use techniques. There is no end in sight, and
the prospect is now one of ever-deepening experience,
rather than one of ever-diminishing possibilities. Our long
slow systematic look at the landscape has revealed the
tremendous vigor with which nature heals itself, and some
of the wonderful logic and time-sense of natural succes-
sion is now available to us.
It is part of the process of recovery that we gain a new
and deeper perception of home. Before this we lived on
parcels, on acreages; now we are invited to live in water-
sheds and ecosystems, rivers and streams, mountains and
valleys. But our emerging identities, fragile and unsure,
are bruised and buffeted by forces which reside both
within and without our chosen region of effect. The suc-
cess of state agencies in appearing impermeable; the seem-
ing venality and single-mindedness of industrial resource
extractors; the demanding tedium of the court system:
together they combine to make a clamoring immediacy
which threatens to obscure our purpose — which is trans-
formative — and divert our energies toward the perpetual
claims of crisis response. .
It is also part of the process of recovery that we learn the
things we need to know to live in places. Our crisis
response becomes more effective as we come to know
more about our particular places than they do. But it is
likely that our most important and effective contribution
to the solution of the puzzle of humans on this planet
will be to develop resource-related industries which are
= Loe ae | om. 07a ?
y 7 ‘ a-
a
restorative, which tend to improve air and water quality,
biodiversity, and soil fertility, as organic gardening and
farming already tend to do. Two examples are emerging
in our own Alta California back yard.
Along the northern coast of California, salmon fishing
has been a major source of protein and income as long
as humans have lived here. By the late 1970s, the com-
bination of growing fleet and dwindling salmon runs had
many fishermen casting about for a new occupation. But
the number of small one- and two-person trollers kept
growing, and among the new members of the fleet were
younger fishermen who were to become leaders in an ex-
ercise in consciousness-raising for the industry. In a very
short time, these notoriously independent operators were
to learn a new and reciprocal relationship to the resource
which would allow them to continue in business.
In the past, the very independence of fishermen had work-
ed against them. As individuals, they tended to be the
best — if not only — source of local knowledge about
aspects of the salmon life cycle. But as a political entity,
fishermen were most likely to do little more than lobby
the government for the least amount of regulation, and
fight the annual fight for the best price they could get
for their catch. As the catch decreased each year, the
fishermen were seized by a mood of deep pessimism. It
seemed to many as if the Pacific salmon was doomed to
the same sort of depletion that had eliminated the Atlantic
salmon as a commercial species. Some argued that no
course of action was available but to take all the fish they
could until the fishery was gone.
Nat Bingham had spent a winter on Big River nursing
a batch of hatchery eggs through California's first stream-
Nat Bingham convinced commercial
salmon fishermen to tax themselves
in support of stream-repair projects
that have helped to restore the salmon
and preserve the livelihood of the
fishermen.
Brad Matsen/National Fisherman Magazine
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 43
restoration will
take its place
on the national
agenda of the
United States.
side hatchbox, and he had been impressed by the results.
Bingham began to argue that if the fishermen would in-
volve themselves in the fate of the freshwater habitats of
the salmon, in the watersheds critical to the reproduc-
tion of the fish, it might be possible to imagine a sus-
tained fishery.
One by one, local marketing associations began to line
up behind Bingham and the other Young Turks, some-
times by margins of no more than one or two votes, to
tax themselves toward a fund that would be invested in
salmon enhancement and habitat repair projects — often
run by the fishermen themselves. Today, Nat Bingham
has been president of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations for seven years; and that group
has spearheaded a Salmon Stamp Program which gen-
erates in excess of one million dollars per year for salmon
enhancement work in California. In 1988, the salmon fleet
had its largest catch in over 40 years. A good part of the
credit for that must go to small salmon restoration pro-
grams conducted up and down the coast by fishermen’s
‘groups and watershed groups alike.
In those same watersheds, natural processes are deeply
engaged by yet another set of workers, the loggers. If the
commercial fishery was able to develop restorative rela-
tionships to its work, could the timber industry do the
same? The answer, of course, is yes, and always has been.
Though seemingly rare, the presence of small- to medium-
size timberland owners managing for sustained yield and
wildlife and watershed values is as much a constant in
the history of timber production as the more noticeable
44 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
It is inevitable, for several
reasons, that ecological —
William T. Follette
(and widespread) operators who try to translate whole
biomes into cash.
One logger on the neighboring Eel River has taken the
notion of sustained yield one necessary step further. Jan
Iris, of Wild Iris Forestry in Briceland, California, starts
with land cut over within the last forty years and has as
his goal restoring forests to their previous diversity and
productivity — steady-state, climax, mixed-species Coast
Range forests. In the process, it looks like he will be able
to make an acceptable income as a timber producer, while
rarely harvesting an old-growth redwood or Douglas fir,
both now rare enough that every harvest is an object of
contention. Since it comes at a time when loggers have
lost large numbers of jobs due to automation, and stand
to lose more if the larger mills fail to retool for smaller
‘trees, this innovation has important implications for a
widespread regional economy.
At the edge of the once-great temperate rain forests,
California Coast Range forests exhibit a wider range of
species than their neighbors to the north. The incidence
of the valuable redwood and Douglas fir is low compared
to the incidence of Coast Range hardwoods like tanoak,
madrone and chinquapin. These latter woods have rare-
ly found their way to market due to the long-term, hands-
on care required to cure them for lumber. Iris has begun
to manage timber for small landholders by selecting ma-
ture hardwoods and harvesting them in such a way as to
release the young conifers which have been kept small by
the shade of the great hardwoods. Second and third gen-
erations of hardwood trees are also left in situations where
Pn
on
(Left) Madrone trees are one of
several overlooked species being
harvested by Wild Iris Forestry.
(Right) Jan Iris uses a moisture
meter to check on the drying
of a tanoak board.
\
they will grow straighter and more quickly than if harvest
had not occurred. There follows a two-year curing pro-
cess capped off by a period in a climate-controlled kiln
which represents the largest part of Wild Iris’s capital
outlay (see p. 48). Wild Iris has had to endure a couple
of lean years, but has found a demand for its product that
exceeds its rate of production. Now local building-supply
operator Bob McKee has invested in a six-headed molding
machine and has begun to mill tanoak flooring, another
local economic turnover.
Iris can see a future with ‘‘an operator up each little water-
shed,’’ with restorative practices as a goal and a reward.
“It doesn’t always have to be cut, cut, cut, chop, chop,
chop. You may cut trees in the morning and do stream
rehab in the afternoon. A lot of things need to be done.’
What is striking about these innovators is that they gain-
ed their analysis and inspiration from personal engage-
ment in restoration work — and this is the heart of my
argument for environmental restoration as a transforma-
tive process for humans. (Iris gained his insight into the
relationship between silviculture and soil erosion doing
stream rehabilitation work in the seventies.) More impor-
tantly, these are clear models, right in our midst, of
ecological restoration transformed into cultural and eco-
nomic sustainability.
l is inevitable, for several reasons, that ecological res-
toration will take its place on the national agenda of the
United States. The very flesh and blood of evolution,
which is wild ecosystems, may already be so severely
diminished that the evolution of large plants and animals
can no longer proceed. Most experts agree that this poten-
tial exists; biologists Michael Soulé and O. H. Frankel
claim we have already reached this point. By the time that
_ experts agree as to how much habitat is enough habitat,
it is likely that restoration of wild systems will have
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 45
Wild Iris Forestry
become not only an appropriate human activity, but an
essential one.
This nation has never given much credence to the ap-
propriate, but it is very good at responding to threats. To
the degree that ecological restoration is interpreted as a
matter of survival, to that degree the U.S. will respond.
In that this time-frame coincides with a period when there
will be no undisturbed habitats left to isolate and preserve,
this effort must spill over into ‘‘resource areas,’ human-
occupied, which make up over three-quarters of the
planet.
There is no tradition of extended liability for ecological
damages. The historical perpetrators are not going to be
hunted down and fined. Rural areas will not be able to
generate the funds necessary to restore themselves and
will always need to appeal to one public agency or another.
There will be more Superfunds. But if a national effort
at ecological restoration is considered in the context of
cultural transformation, and as a pathway to it, it may
be possible to limit public costs to a single generation or
less, by which time restorative economies can begin to
pay for themselves, as consumer appetites adjust to bio-
spheric realities.
The people want it and the talent is available. There is
an enormous psychic need on the part of North Amer-
icans to engage their continent once more, physically and
culturally, evinced on the one hand by a surprising ex-
plosion in the sales of backpacks, hang gliders, canoes,
scuba gear, and mountain bikes; and more to the point,
by a proliferation of in-place grassroots restoration groups.
The Hudson River. Papago reservations in the deepest
46 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Sonora. Inner-city kids working on weekends to find rare
prairie grass specimens in Chicago vacant lots. The Land
Institute in Kansas blurring forever the distinction between
prairie restoration and appropriate agriculture. Make a list
of your own.
It is an indication of the environmental movement feel-
ing its way toward ecological activism that some of its most
effective leaders are advocating ecological restoration as
a national undertaking. With surprising consistency one
hears a misspent military budget proposed as a source of
funding, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of
the 1930s as a model of organization. It is appropriate to
demand a piece of the military budget for the job — both
to give credence to the enormity of the task, and as re-
cognition of the true nature of security. But the use of
the CCC as a model is inappropriate. The CCC was rais-
ed as a response to massive unemployment during the
depression, and activities were selected, in part, for their
non-controversial nature — treeplanting, building park
infrastructures, firefighting. Large numbers of workers
were moved great distances.
The use of CCC as a model for the current discussion gives
rise to the likelihood of seeing the unemployed of Michi-
gan and Louisiana put to work restoring natural systems
in California, thus ignoring the potential of restoration
work to teach local inhabitants the things they need to
know to live integrated lives. If the nation embraces a_
massive effort in ecological restoration which disregards
its potential for social transformation, then, no matter
how many trees are planted, species enhanced, or peo-
ple employed, it will have missed its real goals.
Petrolia High School students
release yearling silver salmon
into Mill Creek, a tributary of
the Mattole. This is done on
the new moon in April. Re-
cent studies have shown that
salmon smolt on the new
moon, a change in their
endocrine systems that makes
them require salt water to
continue living. The dark of
the moon also helps these
three- to four-inch fish escape
predation on their trip down- ©
stream to the sea.
‘ Wok ¢ ie A cack Yok ane ae +
Ca peel Se , pe hol ae
Mattole Salmon Group
There is an ee
PE oeunteicmoaidiianttace|
_on the part of North American
Bcouteetchiss(taccesetste(selacey eles
more, physically and culturally.
Responses to ocean pollution and acid rain require a dif-
ferent level of complexity than is available in my water-
shed or mountain range. And there are some jobs the locals
will always be happy to turn over to men dressed in isola-
tion suits who are bossed by Ph.Ds in the capital. Like
toxic dumps. Like worn-out nuclear plants. Nevertheless,
a very large part of the planet is organized into the visi-
ble, and the understandable.
One clear function of an ecological restoration movement
is to treat symptoms of habitat decline which are other
than human — diminution of species and genetic diver-
sity, deforestation, soil erosion. I am arguing that an
equally important goal is to provide individuals and in-
habitants the clear experience of themselves as function-
ally benign parts of living systems. The cumulative effect
of these experiences is the transformation of social and
economic institutions. As the true nature of environmen-
tal decline becomes apparent to more and more people,
the desire for social transformation will become more
widespread. In the best of all possible worlds, govern-
ments will attempt to serve these desites.
Thinking about national approaches to ecological restora-
tion provides an opportunity to broaden the scope of our
search for organizational models. One good place to
search is in the organization of nature itself. I would like
to suggest three principles which we might keep in mind
as the mandate to engage in recovery grows: :
Approach the planet as the planet reveals itself. Ecological
restoration must be approached contextually, bioregion-
ally, within the boundaries of natural systems, ecosystems
and watersheds. This fairly obvious principle is sometimes
obscured by the fact that we do most political things en-
tirely in the context of abstract, artificial boundaries. The
absence of alligators cannot be treated in the state of |
Washington, nor the need for redwoods served in Arizona.
Old Growth Forests
_ Human populations of natural areas are necessary partici-
pants in local ecological recovery. Ecological restoration deals
with real plants and animals in real time in real places.
Real places are not uniform, but break down immediate-
ly into a wonderful array of microsystems and micro-
climates, each of which mediates and modifies toward
eccentric behavior on the part of living things within
them. These behaviors are the very expression of recovery,
and information about them generally resides nowhere
else but in the experience of locals. This vernacular
science, along with the generalized monuments of legi-
timate biology and geology, creates the most effective and
cost-effective strategies for site-specific habitat repair.
Benefits go both ways. You can't treat the fish population
in Bear Creek without knowing its current status. Given
only one choice, will you mount a three-year study or drop
by and visit with the avid angler who has lived for fifteen
years directly above the banks of Bear Creek?
Natural regions exist in time. One pass through with a
government crew isn't going to do the job. The residents
will remain in place after the government has come and
gone. If the restoration program has been structured so
that problems are defined and decisions made by inhabi-
tants with the counsel of technicians, and if much of the
work has been performed by local people, especially young
people, then a population will remain whose identity has
been extended to include their habitat. They will have the
skills to maintain equilibrium with the changes inherent
in all natural succession. They will have the will to de-
fend the place against further violations. And they will
begin to invent the styles of resource development ap-
propriate to the long-range survival of their places, and
thus of themselves.
They will have become participants in the planet’s
recovery. #
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 47
Nyle Dehumidification
Lumber Dryers
Here's a voice from the woods: ‘’We're
a resource colony up here in Northern
California. In the old days you needed
an army and generals to invade foreign
lands before you could extract their
resources. But today the United States,
with the strongest army in the world, is
giving up its resources voluntarily.’ The
voice belongs to Jan Iris, whose small-
scale Wild Iris Forestry is described in
the preceding article. Jan logs native
hardwoods that big mills won’t bother
with, dries the lumber in his kiln, and
mills and markets the results. There is a
six-month waiting list for his flooring. His
large-scale competition is from the Jap-
anese, who buy whole logs from Amer-
ica, ship them to Japan, saturate them
with steam and peel entire hardwood logs
into 1/64th-inch veneer which is glued
onto plywood, shipped back to the U.S.,
and sold for interior paneling.
The machinery that runs Jan’s kiln is
manufactured by the Nyle Corporation.
Begun as a refrigeration company, it has
been making dehumidification dry-kilns
since 1978, for drying lumber, fish, leather,
peat moss, and fruit. These kilns are
basically air conditioners moditied to
remove water. Nyle is working now to
develop a clothes dryer that will look like
the ones at the laundromat, but will take
nickels instead of quarters.
The reason is dehumidification. A normal
clothes dryer, or lumber kiln, introduces
heated air which absorbs moisture, which,
with all of the heat, is vented to the out-
side. With a dehumidification kiln, the
heated water vapor is cooled to the
dew point, condensed to liquid, and
removed, while the heated air is retained
and recirculated.
Jan’s kiln is in a 20x 18-foot barn that
can hold 6,000 board feet. A conven-
tional kiln at a large mill holds ten to
twenty times that amount, but, in part
because his dehumiditication kiln is more
efficient, Wild Iris Forestry is a viable
small business. —Richard Nilsen
Nyle Dehumidification
Lumber Dryers: |
$1,600-$500,000. Information
free from Nyle Corporation, P. O.
Box 1107, Bangor, ME 04401;
800/777-6953.
The Redesigned Forest ¢ Forest Primeval ¢ From the Forest to the Sea
The more we begin to understand how
forests function as ecological systems,
the clearer it becomes that modern for-
estry is akin to mining, not resource
management, and precludes any hope
of sustainability. In the forefront of scien-
tists doing the fieldwork to back up these
kinds of assertions is Chris Maser. He
writes books in a style equivalent to an
ecological food web — a careful look at
process via a tangential combination of
hard science, history and humanistic °
psychology.
The Redesigned Forest contrasts the
ecological needs of a forest with current
short-rotation forestry practices. If you
want to understand his basic argument,
start here. Forest Primeval is a
biography of an ancient forest in Oregon,
from its beginnings in the year 988 up to
the present. From the Forest to the Sea
is an example of the fieldwork Maser
was doing at the Bureau of land Man-
agement before he left to become a
private consultant. It examines what
happens to the biomass of fallen trees, in
the forest, in the watershed, and even on
the seabed miles off the Oregon coastline.
—Richard Nilsen
When we think of Nature’s forest as a
commodity, we treat it like one. Because
Bald eagles choose to
perch on mudflat ob-
jects, such as drift-
wood, rather than on
the tidal substrate.
—From the Forest
to the Sea
we treat it like a commodity, we are trying
to redesign it to become one. We take a
system designed by Nature to run in 400-
to 1,200-year cycles and attempt to replace
it with recurring cycles of only the first 80
to 120 years. We do not see the forest.
We are so obsessed with our small goals
The Redesigned Forest |
Chris Maser, 1988; 234 pp.
$9.95 ($11.45 postpaid) from
R. & E. Miles, P. O. Box 1916, San
Pedro, CA 90733; 213/833-8856
(or Whole Earth Access).
Forest Primeval
Chris Maser, 1989; 282 pp.
$25 ($29.50 postpaid) from Sierra
Club Store Orders, 730 Polk Street,
San Francisco, CA 94109;
415/923-5500
(or Whole Earth Access).
From the Forest to
the Sea (A Story of Fallen Trees)
Chris Maser, Robert F. Tarrant,
James M. Trappe and Jerry F. Franklin
1988; 153 pp.
$ ? (price undetermined by GPO)
from Superintendent of Docu-
ments/Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC 20402;
202/783-3238
that we. . . redesign the forest with an in- -
stability that cannot be repaired with fer-
tilizers, herbicides, or pesticides.
Decades of scientific research have con-
centrated on every possible cause of forest
decline except that it might be the direct
result of intensive plantation management
based on ignorance of forest processes. The
forests of central Europe are now dying
...and we hear much about acid rain... .
| agree that atmospheric pollutants may
well be playing a role in Waldsterben (the
dying forest). Yet | cannot help but wonder
how the cumulative effects of a century or
more of intensive plantation management
and use may have strained the forests of
Central Europe, and thus predisposed them
to the ‘’Waldsterben syndrome’ we
see today. —The Redesigned Forest
The Douglas-firs in the burn near the spring
are now 250 years old and between 200
and 220 feet tall... .
By now, 1237, their crowns have lost much
of the pyramidal form and have become
rounded or somewhat flattened. And by
the time they are 450 years old in 1437,
their crowns will be cylindrical and re-
semble a bottle brush (albeit one missing
many bristles). Their trunks will be clear
of branches from 65 to 130 feet above
the ground....
The upper surfaces of the large branches
will become covered with perched, organic
“’soil’’ several inches thick that will support
entire communities of epiphytic plants
(plants growing on other plants, in this
case primarily mosses and lichens) and
animals. Large branches will become the
home for myriad invertebrates, as well
as some birds and a few mammals. . . .
A single ancient tree can have over 60
million individual needles that have a
cumulative weight of 440 pounds and a ‘
surface area of 30,000 square feet, or
about 1 acre. —Forest Primeval
S$ INCE the time when dinosaurs roamed the plan-
et, redwood forests have thrived in environments
such as those now found along California’s north coast.
Recently, however, logging and other land uses have dras-
tically transformed these lands. Old-growth redwood
forest ecosystems have been altered to the point that there
are serious concerns they can again support a redwood
_ forest community as complex and naturally diverse as
those that were cut for lumber. Left to its own devices,
deforested and eroding land should slowly recover, but
not to its former state or stable condition, at least not
during our children’s or their children’s lifetimes. At Red-
wood National Park an effort of unprecedented scale is
taking place, designed to give nature a head start in restor-
ing logged land. Lessons learned during this restoration
program could be useful to those interested in helping
to heal other wounded, but still living, lands.
Redwood National Park, established in 1968, originally
incorporated 58,000 acres of old-growth coastal redwood
forest and associated streams and seashores. Primeval red-
wood groves are found along the coastal strip and stream-
side alluvial flats in the lower one-third of the Redwood
Watershed
Rehabilitation
at Redwood
National Park
BY KAREN GRIFFIN
Creek basin. In hindsight, what the 1968 park design
lacked was a watershed perspective. Even though the
groves of the world’s tallest trees were protected from
being logged, they weren't protected from the effects of
logging upstream.
Adverse timber harvest impacts are magnified by the set-
ting. The park’s proximity to the boundaries of three
crustal plates has resulted in myriad faults and active up-
lifting. Bedrock is composed of soft, fine-grained, marine
sedimentary rocks, often sheared beyond recognition by
tectonic processes. The area re- ,
ceives 80 to 100 inches of rain
annually, mostly during intense
winter storms. Erosion rates are
naturally high. Over geologic
time, a dynamic equilibrium was
maintained between uplift and
erosion rates. Streams evolved
to store and transport sediment
loads carried to them. The red-
wood-forest biological communi-
ty thrived in this environment.
be
Redwood
National
Karen Griffin is a pbysical-science technician in the watershed rehabilitation program at Redwood National Park in Northern
California. The worst thing I've heard anyone say about the mammoth restoration efforts going on there was from one fellow who
groused, ‘‘What the Feds are doing is proving that if they spend enough money then, by God, they can do restoration.'’ I suspect he
may have had a case of budgetary jealousy. The backhoe in the photo above is from a 10-year-old project. Nowadays, they have been
replaced by giant excavators with buckets big enough to scoop up a Volkswagen bug. I think the Park Service is also revising for all
of us the old adage about what an ounce of prevention is worth — in hilly terrain with heavy rainfall, it is worth tons of cure.
—Richard Nilsen
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 49
“yonbawtyoenbenae Mmmm sche y en eesSenna shes Tha MN
-2
But just outside park boundaries, this long-standing,
natural equilibrium was decisively tipped in favor of ero-
sion. Earthmovers cut logging roads to get at valuable
trees. Soils and hillslope drainages were disrupted as bull-
dozers constructed earthen mounds upon which loggers
dropped brittle redwood trees. Logs were mostly dragged
down-slope by tractors to loading areas, but if slopes were
too steep for bulldozers, logs were dragged by cable to
hilltop areas where log trucks were loaded for trips to
sawmills. Steep, mountainous areas devoid of vegetative
cover lay bare and unprotected against intense rainfall.
In critical places 10 to 20 inches of rich topsoil, the ac-
tive biotic layer, were flushed away down gullies. During
major storms, water, mud, and logging debris spewed
down drainages too small to handle the newly diverted
runoff. Fill that had been pushed into streams to build
roads washed out. The frequency of landslides and earth-
flows accelerated dramatically throughout the basin. —
Downstream, in the park, giant redwoods toppled as sedi-
ment accumulated and floodwaters undercut stream
banks. Fish spawning gravels were buried under sediment
and summer water temperatures climbed, while the cut-
ting of marketable timber continued to threaten park re-
sources. Following a hotly contested conservation battle,
the Congress enacted legislation, signed into law by Presi-
dent Jimmy Carter in 1978, to expand the park by 48,000
acres. National Park Service management policies typically
dictate that parklands be preserved in their present state
for future generations. At Redwood, however, Congress
authorized the National Park Service to rehabilitate the
more than 36,000 acres of clear-cuts added to the park.
Behind park expansion was the conservation communi-
ty’s enlightened philosophy of looking at an entire water-
shed’s dynamics, from ridgetop to ridgetop and from
headwaters to the ocean. Reaching the goal of preserv-
ing the entire watershed fell short of the desired ideal.
Political and economic constraints at the time made it
impossible to include the upper two-thirds of the basin.
50 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Restoration before, during, and after:
A logging road and culvert (left) is removed (below). The
same site (right) three years after road removal. The crews
at Redwood National Park make an interesting distinction
— they refer to all their work as rehabilitation, and leave
the ‘‘restoration’’ to Mother Nature.
Today, logging continues in the upper basin while the park
monitors impacts on downstream park resources.
A watershed rehabilitation program was undertaken on
the lands added to the park. Unlike the sites of most
restoration efforts taking place today, this large tract of
land is held by a single landowner (the public), without
competing goals or multiple consumptive uses. The park's
watershed rehabilitation team is made up of wildlife bi-
ologists, geologists, hydrologists, botanists, and archae-
ologists. When the program first started in 1977, state-
of-the-art watershed rehabilitation consisted primarily of
small-scale, labor-intensive techniques. Many of the
check-dams, wooden terraces, flumes, and wattles instal-
led in 1978 and 1979 are functioning today. Some washed
out during the first big storm because of design failures
or because they were located in remote areas and could
not be routinely serviced. Although these structures are
effective in slowing erosion, they are not designed to re-
move the massive potential sediment sources still perch-
ed on hillsides.
The sheer volume of soil and debris left from the logging ~
called for earth-moving strategies that far surpassed
anything attainable by a manual labor force. Some en-
vironmentalists cringed, but bulldozers and excavators
which had created the mess in the first place were called
back to clean it up. Studies comparing heavy-equipment
costs versus labor-intensive treatments fueled a major
change in the watershed rehabilitation program. There
was a shift towards using heavy equipment to more com-
os dah Le
pletely excavate and reshape soil removed from drainages
and road fills.
Eleven years ago, when the restoration began, there were
300 miles of haul roads and 3,500 miles of skid trails criss-
crossing drainages. About half of those miles have been
rehabilitated. Areas have been surveyed to determine
which roads have failed and to prioritize those posing
the greatest erosion threats. Each year, new areas are
tackled. The first step is to interpret historical aerial photos
for past land-use practices, such as the age of roads and
the size of the logged tracts. Drainages and gross geo-
morphic features are studied in the office before fieldwork
begins. Original stream courses must be identified before
a road is ‘‘put to bed’’ and natural drainage patterns re-
established. After this scientific, left-brained, data-
gathering phase comes a more right-brained, artistic
prescription phase. A complete excavation must be intu-
itively visualized before the first tractor rolls. The lay of
the land guides this process. Once the rehabilitation site
prescription is complete, a survey crew measures dimen-
sions to calculate how many cubic yards must be moved.
Work areas are laid out using stakes and flags.
During the dry summer season, bulldozers, hydraulic ex-
cavators, and dump trucks move earth until the physical
landscape is once again in a stable configuration. Fill from
the outboard edge of some road sections is stacked against
the inboard cut-bank to completely recontour hillslopes.
Topsoil is recovered from below the road fill and replaced
on reconstructed hillslopes to help foster revegetation.
Some road sections have seeps or springs that could sat-
urate replaced fill and cause failures. Here, earth must be
exported to a ridge or other stable fill site.
The process of road construction is reversed during
stream-channel excavation. Culverts are removed and
thousands of cubic yards of fill that were pushed into the
channels to make flat road surfaces are removed, until
the original stumps and stream-bottom deposits are en-
countered. Less erosion-prone roads are decompacted by
bulldozers equipped with hydraulically operated, giant
ripper teeth. Drains are placed every 100 feet to take water
out of the former roadbed. After the heavy equipment
moves out, hand crews complete the work. Bare earth sur-
faces are blanketed with straw mulch, or in some cases
with compost. Native conifer seedlings are then planted.
Sites found falling apart in the winter rains, and reshaped
by heavy earthmovers the following summer, are covered
with a lush green mantle of nitrogen-fixing alder and
wildflowers. The results of this work give hope that nature
can quickly heal wounded landscapes if unimpeded by
excessive erosion and repeated exploitation. Watershed
rehabilitation is expensive. And it takes many human
lifetimes for an old-growth forest to regrow and mature.
Successful restoration of decimated lands should not be
used as a justification for further destruction on this scale.
Restoration should teach us to appreciate the land’s com-
plexity and the importance of good stewardship as a more
effective management strategy for the future. =
A redwood forest ecosystem. The vegetation is lush right
to the high-water line, and the forest canopy provides
shade to keep the stream cool enough in summer so that
small salmon can thrive.
Each summer, a field seminar on watershed rehabilitation is present-
ed at Redwood National Park in cooperation with Humboldt State
University. Also, a number of park-published technical reports
evaluate watershed rehabilitation progress and related research and
monitoring programs. Many are available upon request. For more in-
formation, contact: Superintendent, Redwood National Park, 1111
Second Street, Crescent City, California, or telephone 707/464-6101.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 5 I
Healing
The Dream of
Apocalypse:
A Ritual
BY MICHAEL ORTIZ HILL
Illustrated by
PAUL MIROCHA
Michael Ortiz Hill last appeared in this
magazine with ‘‘Gifts From the Thief’ (WER
#60, p. 14). Like many of bis neighbors in San-
ta Cruz, he is living in a new home since last
October's earthquake. Michael is working on a
book about dreams related to nuclear war — if
you have dreamed any you'd like to share, write
to him at 180-F Dakota, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.
And thanks to illustrator Paul Mirocha, for de-
touring from a trip to Albuquerque to get the
Sierra Oscura landscape right.
—Richard Nilsen
52 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
CAE AG
ea Rirerss Dette:
THE OMB has been a member of my family — and also a
figure in my dreams — since before I was born. My
father grew up in Alamogordo, New Mexico, just south
of where the first atomic weapon was tested at the Tri-
nity site. His mother, a crusty Southern Baptist, was
operating the switchboards for Ma Bell when the electromagnetic
pulse snuffed out the lines of communication in the early morning
of July 15, 1945.
My mother’s family migrated to the northern outposts of New Spain
up the Chihuahua Trail in the early 1700s — passing merely five
miles from Trinity. In 1943, when Los Alamos, New Mexico, was
only a sprinkling of lights after sunset on the nearby mountains, my
mother would point them out to her little cousin from a ridge at my
grandfather’s ranch. ‘‘That is where Santa Claus and his elves are
preparing Christmas for us,’’ she would tell him. After the war my
parents lived in Los Alamos, where my older sister was born.
A couple of years ago I began writing a book on dreams related to
nuclear war — both people’s personal dreams that I am continuing
to gather for research, and the collective or cultural ‘‘dream’’ that
led to Trinity. What is this dream of destruction we seem uncon-
sciously compelled to live out? What are the questions, the yearn-
ings, that the Bomb attempts to answer for us? I want to know how
we ‘‘hold’’ the Bomb in our deepest psyche. ‘‘Who’’ in us would
destroy the world? ‘‘Who’’ would preserve and cherish it? What
are these dreams asking of us?
June before last I made a pilgrimage to the Trinity site to perform a
small ritual of ‘healing the dream.’’ I planted Kwan Yin, the Buddhist
goddess of limitless compassion, in the earth at Ground Zero.
My mother, ten-year-old daughter Nicole, and her friend Lily dropped
me off at the border of the White Sands Missile Range in the late
afternoon. As I unloaded my backpack, Nicole sang to me,
‘Shalom, Haverot, Shalom,’’ — a Hebrew song for the one who
departs on a journey or goes off to war.
a ry) Cte
is ;
NORE ER gmp 7 TOTNES 2 Psa ~
NIN Yer TREN poe id > ISIE T Ie BIS
bo othprrs gt
ee ee
I meditated in the tall grass with the little black ants
and the grasshoppers until the sun set and the moon
rose. I wanted to trespass under the cover of night.
Then for six hours I walked alongside the north-south
spine of the Sierra Oscura mountains.
The desert under the full moon was radiantly beautiful.
To see an antelope walking slowly in the blue shadows
or to be startled by the unearthly sounds of stray cattle,
or even to come by something as mundane as a power
line buzzing in the middle of nowhere — these things
had terrifying presence.
My geological survey maps were all but useless, but it
took little imagination to ‘‘see’’ the mushroom cloud
burning in the night to the southwest of me. I found
myself relying on this apparition and my compass to
negotiate the twists and turns in the dusty roads.
Often I felt lost — in all possible senses of the word.
In fact this ‘‘lostness’’ turned out to be an excruciating
but essential part of my preparation for the ritual. By
the time I got to my destination I had been utterly
reduced to what was most elemental — often what
was most fearful and confused in myself.
I sat there for two hours in a swirl of unbearable vul-
nerability. Paranoia of the military police; a five-year-
old’s sense of having trespassed — and both a fear of
being caught by the ‘‘adults’’ and a hunger to be pun-
ished; flashes of dying a rather stupid and unnecessary
death. I was aware of my complete incapacity to pull
myself together or to surrender. I very seriously con-
sidered not doing what I had spent months preparing
for — knowing well that to act falsely would be poison.
Finally out of this incapacity and brokenheartedness I
began with the prayer: ‘‘Make use of me. I am a little
child and will die a little child. I can’t pretend other-
wise. I do not know how to proceed. Lead me.’’
I stood up and paced out the four directions after the
manner of the Mescalero Apache who used to come
out to this land for vision quests before ranchers ap-
propriated it in the late 1800s. Coyotes began howling
shortly before dawn — first to the east of me and then
to the west. I performed the ritual in a whispered voice.
It was unexpectedly and exquisitely intimate in a way
that I could never have imagined. |
J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was a Sanskrit scholar as
well as the ‘‘Father of the Atomic Bomb,’ wrote that
when he first faced the mushroom cloud it was Vishnu’s
words to Arjuna that came to his mind: ‘‘Behold I am
become Death, shatterer of worlds.’’ In my original
draft of the ritual I succumbed to the temptation of
answering the pathos of apocalypse with an apoca-
lyptic gesture — I planned a ritual act of burning the
scriptures of apocalypse (the tenth chapter of the
Bhagavad Gita and the end of the Book of Revelations)
at Ground Zero. My wife, Deena Metzger, rather sensi-
bly suggested that, instead of trying to be on equal
terms with the Manhattan Project by replicating its
grandiosity, perhaps tenderness and humility might
bear the proper attitude of healing in such a dark
period of history. So at the core of my rewritten ritual I
called the ‘‘enemy’’ to the warmth of the heart. I made
a small fire of twigs in the hole in which I would bury
Kwan Yin, and prayed:
‘Here where the nuclear fire first burned I make a hearth of
a handful of twigs. To this fire I call all who I have feared
and despised and felt superior towards; those people of
my own dark dreams and those of my waking life who I
have felt wounded or betrayed by: I invite you here without
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 53
Ee ee ee eee ee ES ee ee ee ee ee
NEAR TRINITY SITE, THE
Day AFTER THE JUNE
Moon WENT FULL
When a swallow flies
toward the face of a cliff
its wings cut the air
with an effortless violence
And so it was
when the jets flew over,
the stunning grace as they curved
against the embankment
of the Sierra Oscura,
shuddering
along the spine of the yucca.
And beneath the roar
I also shuddered
with the dull grey beetles
that cluster
on the scat of coyotes
When the bombs began dropping
I thought, this cannot be
I thought
El Salvador
Afghanistan
and not long ago
a small hamlet in Vietnam
the fire, the wailing of mothers
over dead children.
There was no place to hide.
I became a dusty fetus
curled up amongst cactus
with only a small prayer
in a small voice:
“please if I die now
regard the life of my daughter with
kindness
if she is to be fatherless
tend to her beart’’
When the bombing paused
I stood up and walked burriedly north
My back to where the mushroom cloud
first lifted poison to the sky.
The largest tiger swallowtail
I had ever seen
alighted on the ragged
blue flower of a thistle.
My God, this life
And then the bombs
began dropping again
After the bombs stopped the second time
an antelope looked up from its grazing,
held my gaze for a long moment
and ran off to where the earth still smoked
What must it think?
In 1945, two herd of antelope
scattered to these mountains
when the first nuclear bomb was
tested here.
54 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Later that day, J. Robert Oppenheimer,
aman not unfamiliar with tenderness,
found
a turtle turned on its back near
Ground Zero.
He set the turtle back on its feet.
Three weeks later, the Bomb
the Japanese would call the ‘‘Original
Child’’
leveled Hiroshima,
and then, Nagasaki
In this world
to frighten a butterfly
will never mean very much
To bake the underside of a slow reptile
or to shatter the minds of a herd of beasts
To burn to the ground
a whole city of children
has become the ordinary labor of
ordinary men
Have mercy on us.
—MOH
ies pa
i
demand but with an open heart so that I might look upon
your face and speak with you. I may not be able to forgive
and let go. I know that such things cannot be forced — but
I desire to do so and will pray always for the courage to do
so. When I am lost and my heart is numb I will try to re-
member this prayer — because it has always been true that
each of you in your own way have been my most insistent
and generous and difficult teachers. I hope that between
now and the unknown time of my death I learn to cherish
and carry to fruition at least a fragment of what you have
shown me. I know that this is the way of lovingkindness
which I am so naive in. The confusions of this world that
would rely upon the Bomb and risk the life of everything
that lives to be ‘‘protected’’ from the ‘‘enemy’’ — these
confusions are very intimately my own as well. If making
these vows at this place where a vast nightmare was born
can be at all helpful for sentient beings I pray that it be
so. If not — let it at least be helpful for my own suffering
and towards those whom my life touches.’
As the twigs burned to cinders I addressed my enemies
one by one, informally. I recounted memories and tried
to find the thread of empathy towards the personal
dilemmas and pain that led them to be harsh or un-
conscious with me. I searched my own heart for the
ways I had contributed to the circumstances in which I
came to feel betrayed — and I requested the enemies’
forgiveness. I reflected upon concrete gestures of recon-
of my ritual. Whatever had eluded me at Trinity about
the fragility and preciousness of life in this insane
century became fully clear then.
Sometimes one is momentarily blessed with the ability
to truly listen to what this planet, in her great distress,
requests of us to offer towards the healing of this mad-
ness. It has been a year and a half since I did the ritual
at Trinity. Since then I have come to feel that perhaps
it is this ongoing labor of love, these efforts at recon-
cilation that give me the right to call myself a true
citizen of the twentieth century.
The ritual at Trinity stands as a turning point in my life
— the beginning of a slow and painstaking purification
in the realm of my dreams and my everyday life that
partakes of the most difficult vulnerabilities of my heart.
To recognize that the enemy has a face no less human
than my own — this has been the koan I have returned
to again and again in order to realize self-acceptance
and kindness toward others.
I have found that the enemy forces me to look at my
own shadow — which is to say, forces me to recognize
that I am not who I think I am. Much of the rage and
fear that come up is related to being set adrift in un-
known areas of my psyche — areas I have adamantly
ciliation that might be appropriate — a phone call or
letter, a meeting, a confession, an anonymous gift —
or merely composting what I didn’t know how to heal
back into my dharma practice.
When I finished the sky was reddening with dawn. I
buried Kwan Yin and kissed the earth. I knew I had to
hurry north because my water supply was low and it
promised to be a hot day. I also knew that the sun
_ meant I was suddenly visible and ran a greater risk
of being arrested.
Around 9:00 A.M. a bevy of jets flew over and began
dropping bombs. This was the unexpected completion
or complacently made a point of avoiding.
This was what happened when I got lost at the White
Sands Missile Range on my way to Ground Zero. Stag-
gering through the night in the field of the enemy it
was his presence ‘‘everywhere’’ that set me adrift in
the fears and insecurities I’ve carried with me since I
was a child. As it was, it was these fears that devoured
me, not the enemy himself — whom I never met. In
other words the enemy I most feared, first ‘‘inner’’ but
then, inevitably, ‘‘outer,’’ bore the face of my own dark
twin. Reconciliation, when it happens, has been the
unexpected laughter that comes when I realize I was
never other than a sibling to the ones I despised. m
Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy
This is a story where everything of value
loses because the system — our system
— worked. Carefully researched and
calmly written, Fradkin’s horrifying book
recounts the long-term effects that the
lethal clouds of radioactive dust that
drifted over southern Nevada, northern
Arizona, and southwestern Utah had on
cattle, sheep, human life, and American
institutions. When redress was sought by
the victims, the results were neglect, lies,
coverups, and finally betrayal. For there
have been other casualties of the ‘‘na-
tional security state’’ as well, among
them truth, justice, and compassion.
Fradkin is a careful researcher who has
read through thousands of government
documents, conducted hundreds of inter-
views, and attended the two-month-long
trial where some of the atomic fallout
_ victims sought redress. The acknowledge-
ments that precede the story tell how this
important book was nearly not published.
In this book we glimpse, if only partially,
that Americans have been the collective
victims of a national egotism so immense
that to ‘‘defend”’ our way of life we have
been willing to sacrifice every single
value that makes life precious. Fradkin
shows how trusting citizens have permitted
our government and its byzantine bureau-
cracies to poison the land, the air, and
our people. We read here the story of
people who thought that the end of ‘‘na-
tional security ”’ justified evil means de-
ceittully implemented. Even after a federal
judge found that the courts themselves
had been defrauded by the government,
an appellate court reversed the previous
decision in favor of the fallout victims
and mute ‘’sovereign immunity’’ prevailed.
In the end all the victims got was cancer.
Fradkin quotes from a congressional report
that ‘The greatest irony of our atmo-
spheric testing program is that the only
victims of U.S. nuclear arms since World
War Il have been our own people.’’
—Randolph Delehanty
Fallout
(An American Nuclear Tragedy)
Philip L. Fradkin, 1989; 300 pp.
$14.95 ($16.95 postpaid) from
University of Arizona Press, 1230
North Park #102, Tucson, AZ 85719;
602/621-1441
(or Whole
Earth Access).
27 GATE fe
O, CA 94965 55
Garbage
This brand-spanking-new magazine,
published by the same folks who put out
The Old-House Journal, and which,
incidentally, is printed on 50-70% re-
cycled paper, succeeds in making trash
less contemptible. Its orientation is one of
direct confrontation with what has been
one of the most profound enemies of our
time — waste. And in the words of the
publisher this means “‘wasteful habits,
solid waste, waste of resources, haz-
ardous waste, waste that shouldn’t be
waste, waste that pollutes and enters
the food chain... . ”’
Garbage tokes “’not only an industry
viewpoint. . . not only an environmen-
talist viewpoint,’’ and is ‘‘more about
people than about wildlife.’ Face it. The
human race has brainwashed itself into
believing that garbage management, in
its many guises, is a drag. Actually the
subject of alternative auto fuels, like
ethanol, methanol, natural gas, and
electricity, is immensely interesting and
fortunately this magazine writes about it
in a way that makes the most sense —
not in regard to profits, fashion, or politics
but in relation to the environment. So go
out and buy Garbage for a change. It’s
definitely an idea whose time has arrived.
—lori Woolpert
Garbage Dictionary
beach whistles, noun (plural). Plastic tam-
pon applicators which wash up on beaches
and have become a significant source of
shoreline blight. Partial credit for the term
should go to Jay Critchley, a Provincetown,
Massachusetts, artist. About ten years ago,
Critchley decided he’d seen one too many
of those nearly indestructible applicators on
Cape Cod beaches, so he began publicizing
the problem by creating sculptures from
(what else?) plastic-tampon debris. . . . In
1986 Critchley attended the Statue of Li-
berty Centennial in a gown rustling with
3,000 pink and white tampon applicators.
Kids are just as creative in their use of
discarded applicators. Some mount them
on sand castles, some wear them as finger
puppets, and others use them (literally)
as whistles.
Garbage
Patricia Poore, Editor
$21 /year (6 issues) from Garbage,
P. O. Box 51647, Boulder, CO 80321-
1647; 800/274-9909.
56 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Restoring the Earth
This is the organization that sponsored
the landmark 1988 conference held in
Berkeley, California, that helped put
environmental restoration on the map.
Some of the technical papers from that
gathering are due out soon as a book.
Restoring the Earth is currently working
towards developing a television series.
They are also responsible for the restora-
tion database described on p. 58. For
another voice from a burgeoning move-
ment, here is John J. Berger trom his
Editor’s Introduction to the forthcom-
ing book.
We must mobilize the broadest possi-
ble societal coalition to stop further
harm to our life-support systems. The
damage is occurring so fast — scarce-
ly an instant on a geological time
scale — that we cannot act too quickly
to stop it. Yet stopping it will not be
enough: we must also repair the
wounds made, both to prevent further
deterioration and to recreate the
living natural heritage that connects
us biologically and historically to
the past.
| have been told that we should not
publicize or even propose restoration
because society will use it to excuse
new assaults on the environment. Yet
the technology of resource restora-
tion is developing rapidly and cannot
be wished away. Just as our under-
standing of atomic energy cannot
be unlearned, so, too, the genie of
Society for
Ecological Restoration
This organization serves a new profes-
sion — environmental restorationists —
although membership in the Society is
open to anyone interested in the subject.
One of the healthy things about restora-
tion work is that it involves diverse pro-
fessional specialties in a generalist pursuit.
This is also part of the challenge for a
new discipline, since anyone can call
himself a practitioner of environmental
restoration. SER is where the philosophy
and the politics of restoration are getting
thrashed out. The group’s second annual
conference will be held in Chicago at
the end of April, and one of the topics
up for discussion then will be ‘setting
standards for monitoring restoration proj-
ects,’’ a crucially important technical,
economic, and ethical issue.
—Richard Nilsen
For membership information for the
Society of Ecological Resto-
ration, write to the same address.
restoration is ‘‘out of the bottle.’ Our
task is to see that restoration is used
properly — to repair past damage,
not to legitimize new disruption.
An epochal development has clearly
begun: For the first time in human
history, masses of people now realize
not only that we must stop abusing
the earth, but that we also must re-
store it to ecological health. We must
all work cooperatively toward that
goal, with the help of restoration
science and technology.
—Richard Nilsen
Restoring the Earth
1713C Martin Luther King Jr. Way,
Berkeley, CA 94709.
Restoration &
Management Notes
This ‘‘bulletin board’’ of environmental
restoration does a nice job of serving
both a profession and a movement. It’s
the best single source for restoration
news. Because this is a new field full of
pioneering spirit, the writing is usually
straightforward, and the dreaded and stul-
tifying peer-reviewed prose found in so
many scientific trade journals is missing.
There are longer articles, plus abstracts
from diverse small publications and con-
ference proceedings. (Turn.to p. 60 to
see some of what gets scanned routinely
for relevant news.) To the casual observer
two things are readily apparent — there
is a lot of restoration work going on,
and it is beginning to happen all over
the world. —Richard Nilsen
Restoration & |
Management Notes
William R. Jordan III, Editor
$1 5/year (2 issues) from University
of Wisconsin Arboretum, 1207 Semi-
‘nole Highway, Madison, WI 53711;
608/263-7889.
Retiree volunteers from the
Chevron Corporation pair off
to prepare holes and plant
valley oak seed at The Nature
Conservancy's Cosumnes
River, California, site.
What the restorationist creates is rarely, if
ever, a finished product. Rather it is a
beginning — often an early stage in suc-
cession. And if the restoration is to mean
anything at all in the long run, attention
must be paid to its likely course of devel-
opment in the future. Thus, the question
becomes not just what exists at any par-
ticular time, but what processes have been
set in motion, what dynamics prevail? In
short, how successfully has the project
been aimed?
Let us be clear that we are unabashed
fans of Disneyland. In our opinion, Disney-
land is one of the finest things done-for
people by people. Among other things, it
creates tangible fantasy and apparent
reality in ways that are pleasing to most of
its visitors. But it is not reality. Let us further
be clear that the fantasy of a ‘‘Disneyland’’
is better than the reality of another sub-
urban parking lot. Similarly, if a truly
native ecosystem cannot be restored, then
restoration of something biologically viable
and sustainable is far preferable to the
complete loss of that ecosystem.
Exactly what are the factors that distin-
guish a ‘‘Disneyland’’ from a restored
native ecosystem? One set of factors that
has so far been treated only superficially
is the genetics of restoration. The genetic
nature of introduced stock can profoundly
influence the behavior of the individuals,
which in turn may affect the dynamics of
the entire community and disrupt or alter
the course of co-evolution within the com-
munity. All of these effects are of great
concern to the restorationist.
Using the Bible as a guide,
restorationists in Israel are
creating a landscape that
evokes the landscape of the
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 57
OOO EO
th
- CREATING A
RESTORATION
DATABASE
Jane Witkin, above, developed this database for the organization Restoring
BY JANE WITKIN the Earth. When not in front of a PC, she does stream restoration to protect the
remaining habitat of an endangered species of trout in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. | —Richard Nilsen
¢
OLLOWING THE SUCCESS OF the Environ- Our questionnaire asked the following:
mental Restoration conference held at Berkeley, I. General information
California, in January 1988 and sponsored by . Project name
Restoring The Earth (RTE), there was a need . Location (nearest street intersection, city, county)
for a national listing of restoration projects. In December . Project size
1988 a foundation grant was obtained to begin assem- . Contact person (name, organization, title,
bling a prototype database of restoration projects in the addresses, phone numbers)
6. 622
San Francisco Bay area. We have identified nearly 200 e. Other contacts
projects in our area to date, and have evolved a format f. Month, year project began
which may prove useful to people in other areas who want g. Present status
to create their own regional databases. We think this re- h. Month, year project completed or projected
gional approach is the best way to go about developing completion
a national environmental-restoration database. Fe al avateor necds
The first task is to create a workplan which integrates all a. Type of assistance needed
of the steps required to collect the information needed b. When, where, and how often —
for an ongoing database and to complete a directory. After c. Volunteer coordinator
some trial and error, we think a workplan should look
something like the flow charts below and opposite:
Notices in newspapers, newsletters,
Journals of environmental organiza-
tions, park departments, sports
groups, alerting people to the task
and of the search for restoration
projects.
Gathering Project Information
Recruit volunteers via flyers in local colleges/universities
(biology dept. , environmental study, etc.) and public service
announcements.
Develop a question- rag
naire and cover letter
Send questionnaires to contacts Bs
with cover letter describing
the database/directory project.
Phone networking to locate projects. B&
Call: environmental organizations,
park departments, environmental
consulting firms, govt. agencies, etc.
Evaluate questionnaires and
make calls for additional
information when necessary.
Develop a database
format. RTE used
Claris Filemaker Plus
for Macintosh by
Nashoba Inc.
Put information into database
and create project folders
for hard file.
58 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
III, Detailed project information
a. Site description prior to restoration work
b. Purpose of project
c. Methods and technologies used at all phases
of project
d. Monitoring program and objectives
e. Results thus far (please describe accomplishments
as well as failures and unexpected results)
f. Future plans, including improved techniques
for the future
g. Any foreseeable problems in securing or main-
taining the progress made at the restoration site?
h. Support (sponsors, volunteers, funds and dona-
tions, consultants)
i. Budget
j. Knowledge of any other restoration projects
Here are some suggestions for future database/directory
Assembling Directory
Compile all directory material.
program, organize and
- final proof.
Print copy of the directory.
(RTE self-published)
Send to printer.
Send press release to eS
daily newspapers. =
Send out general flyer for #
directory order. es
In-depth project reports: select project(s): visit sites with be
project managers; attain photographs and maps; write report.
Compile information about restoration programs and other
inventories. Write brief paragraph about each.
Put together front and back matter starting with introduction,
glossary, acknowedgemernts, index, table of contents,
brief questionnaire insert.
Make computerized ae
map(s) of project sites.
°
Input into word processing : Se
Assemble a list of all restorationists, with names, addresses
and phone numbers.
Start computer mail
list for database
and directory.
Send press release to non-dally newspapers, newsletters etc. Bs
efforts, based on our experiences:
e Our questionnaire did not often elicit very thorough
responses. Try asking more specific questions, particu-
larly with regard to project procedure.
e Allow only a week or two for a questionnaire to be re-
turned. Any longer and the correspondent might file it
and forget it.
e While calling around in search of projects, always ask
for another name.
Ir YOU'RE INTERESTED in putting together an envi-
ronmental-restoration database in your own region, please
contact RTE (Restoring The Earth, 1713C Martin Luther
King Way, Berkeley, CA 94709). We will gladly offer our
assistance, and and we appreciate your feedback and
suggestions. @
Plot project sites on one Ee
ormore base maps. |
areterejorsrssecesseses
Promotion
Create flyer for early
order discount, general
fiyer and press release.
| 27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 59
A Survey of Publications Covering Restoration BY DAVE EGAN
ENVIRONMENTAL restoration news is scattered far and wide, often in tiny newsletters, or magazines that cover it occasionally.
Dave Egan scans these publications and writes up abstracts of what's interesting for Restoration & Management Notes (p. 57),
where he is assistant editor. Here are his choices of the best publications. Like the subjects they cover, many of them are fragile
— tiny budgets, no advertising revenues, few subscribers — and worthy of your support.
American Midland
Naturalist
_One of the best experimental science
journals available to the restoration com-
munity. Its articles are well-researched
and -written, not overly laden with tech-
nical jargon or unruly statistical data.
Recent examples include “A 12-year
study of vegetation and mammal succes-
sion on a reconstructed tallgrass prairie
in lowa,”’ “A 20-year study of the effect
of prescribed burning on Andropogon
scoparius in Connecticut,’ ‘Response of
Hamamelis virginiana to canopy gaps.”’
Definitely worth trying to obtain either as
a subscriber or through your local col-
lege library.
©
The explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens
on 18 May 1980 resulted in a large-scale
destruction of montane/subalpine forest
and meadow habitats and caused the
local extirpation of many small mammal
species. At least 14 species of small mam-
mals survived the initial eruption and con-
comitant habitat alterations. Individuals of
many ‘‘residual’’ species survived the
volcanic blast by virtue of their fossorial
habitats; being in underground burrows at
BioScience
While fairly technical in its approach |
and subject material, this journal still
provides restorationists with some inter-
esting reading, particularly in the areas
of genetics and biological diversity. Ar-
ticles from recent issues include ‘‘Blue-
print for conserving plant diversity,’’
“Shredders and riparian vegetation,’’
and “Integrated conservation strategy
for Hawaiian forest birds.’’
BioScience
Julie Ann Miller, Editor
$42/year (11 issues) from AIBS, 730
lith Street NW, Washington, DC
20001-4584; 202/628-1500.
60 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
American Midland
Naturalist
Robert P. McIntosh, Editor
$50/year (4 issues) from American
Midland Naturalist, University of
Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556.
the time of the early morning eruption
shielded them from the rapidly moving hot
gases and tephra. Although the blast vir-
tually annihilated all exposed plants and _
arthropods in nearby areas, the existence
of underground plant parts and inverte-
brates, combined with a limited “‘rain’’ of
recolonizing arthropods onto the disturb-
ed areas, provided an adequate food
supply for some of the surviving animals.
Localized aerial seeding by government
agencies (as part of a reclamation effort)
augmented some food resources.
Geese on the west coast of Hudson Bay
are turning salt marshes into mudflats. This
environmental devastation may foreshadow
scenes to come in the predicted global
climate change. . . . Increased winter pre-
cipitation, thus deeper snow accumulation
and greater cloud cover, would delay snow
melting. During the last decade, areas
along the shores of Hudson Bay have ex-
perienced late spring thaws — a weather
pattern resembling some of the climatic
predictions.
The northward spring migration of the
lesser snow goose follows the melting snow.
... Ina study area at La Pérouse Bay...
as many as 100,000 snow geese have re-
mained for several weeks in spring, in-
stead of stopping only for a day or two.
This migration delay has upset the balance
that allows nondestructive grazing of grass
and sedges. . . . In an hour one grubbing
goose can clear a square meter of land that
may then become dried mud in summer.
—Richard Nilsen
California
Waterfront Age
As the title suggests, this journal focuses
on California coastline, although the in-
formation is applicable to other states as
well. Recently funded dune, beach, and
littoral wetland restoration projects are.
featured. By placing restoration within
the context of a multiple-use resource,
CWA provides a pragmatic look at the
balancing act between human use and
resource management. Recent articles in-
clude ‘‘Restoration standards: how to
guarantee environmental protection,’’
“Watershed restoration: an idea whose
time has come — again,”’ ‘‘How public
access affects wetlands,’’ and ‘’Stream
restoration: the healing touch.”
California
Waterfront
Age
Rasa Gustaitis,
Editor
free (4 issues/year) from California
Waterfront Age/State Coastal Con-
servancy, 1330 Broadway, Suite 1100,
Oakland, CA 94612; 415/464-1015
The concept of mitigation may be seen as
a form of plea bargaining in which a de-
veloper who causes environmental damage
receives a “‘lighter sentence’ by promising
to perform environmental penance. Some
mitigations are reasonably straightforward.
Dedications of access or conservation .
easements, for instance, are clear cut, easy
to verify, and their benefits are felt almost
immediately. Restoration, however, is a
special kind of mitigation. It is a long-term,
experimental, sometimes expensive under-
taking which often lacks clearly definable
goals and whose success can never be fully
guaranteed. This absence of certainty is
often at the root of controversy surround-
ing restoration projects.
Some biologists involved in development-
linked restoration projects have been sur-
prised by the intensity of opposition they
have encountered: they fail to understand
that restoration is much more than a bio-
logical activity. It is also a political, legal,
economic, and in some respects a philo-
sophical enterprise.
Canadian Journal
of Botany
Restorationists often rely on quantitative,
scientific data to give some measure of
predictability to their projects. This multi-
faceted journal is an example.of a pub-
lication where such information is often
available. Its research-oriented articles
do, however, require a background in
statistical interpretation in order to be
protitable. Topics from recent issues in-
clude ‘’Relationship between mycorrhizal
dependence and competitive ability of
two tallgrass prairie grasses,’’ ‘‘Posttire
lichen — spruce woodland recovery at
the limit of the boreal forest in. northern
Quebec,”’ ‘’Studies of mycorrhizal asso-
ciation in Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, ’’
and ‘‘Population density and height dis-
tribution.of Corylus Cornuta in undis-
turbed forests of Minnesota, 1965-1984.’’
The study of mushrooms in North America
is faced with many difficulties. Mushroom
taxonomy, although armed with sophis-
ticated technology, is approximately 100
years behind that for vascular plants.
There is great debate over generic con-
cepts and names, many new species are
_ still being described from temperate areas
of the world, and species concepts them-
selves are often vague, just as they were
for vascular plants 100 years ago. Within
the past 20 years the literature aimed at
the amateur mycologist has overtaken the
scientific literature in many respects. Field
guides give information on fungal distribu-
tions and other data not documented in
the scientific literature. Precise information
Canadian Journal
of Botany
lain E. P. Taylor, Editor
$1 45/year (12 issues); sample $17
from Research Journals/Subscription
Office, National Research Council of
Canada, Ottowa, Ontario, Canada
KIA OR6
on the distribution of mushrooms is dif-
ficult to determine from the literature
because of the mixture of useful data with
misinformation based on misdetermina-
tions, differing species concepts, or the
misapplication of names. There is even
uncertainty about the ranges of some of
our commonest species! . . .
The end result of this discrepancy between
common knowledge and scientifically
documented data is that we can only
make very broad and vague statements
regarding the overall distribution of this
common macrofungus in Canada or
North America.
Traditionally mycologists have hesitated to
emphasize distributional patterns of mac-
romycetes based on existing collections.
Vast areas of North America are unex-
plored mycologically.
Conservation Biology
This relatively new, smart-looking journal
carries very cogent articles about the in-
ternational preservation and conservation
of animal species, especially those which
are threatened or endangered. Habitat
and ecosystem restoration are discussed
as a strategy for accomplishing this larger
goal, Recent issues have had some res-
toration-oriented articles, including ‘’Re-
storing island ecosystems: the potential
of parasites to control introduced mam-
mals,’’ ‘Vegetation dynamics (succession
and climax) in relation to plant community
management,”’ and ‘Consequences and
costs of conservation corridors.”’
[Suggested by Dave Foreman]
Conservation Biology
David Ehrenfeld, Editor
$32.50 /year (4
| issues; includes member-
: ship) from Blackwell
Scientific Publications,
Inc., 3 Cambridge
‘Center, Suite 208,
Cambridge, MA 02142;
617/225-0401
Numerous mechanisms have existed over
the past five centuries to move perhaps
thousands of species of shallow-water
marine organisms around the world in in-
numerable patterns. These mechanisms
include the movement of species by ocean-
going vessels — as fouling and boring
organisms, in ‘‘dry’’ ballast (sand and
rock) and in ‘‘wet’’ ballast (seawater) —
as well as the equally unintentional move-
ment of species sequestered with commer-
cial fisheries products. . . .
Ballast water (not bilge water) is pumped
“into a vessel to alter the trim and stability
of an empty or partially loaded ship. The
plankton in the water pumped in includes
organisms that spend their entire lives in
the water column (the holoplankton, such
as many copepods) and the larval stages
of bottom-dwelling (benthic) species (the
meroplankton). .. .
We have found that almost all major and
most minor marine phyla survive such
voyages and often arrive in vast quan-
tities: over 200 species of living zooplank-
ton and phytoplankton have been collected
in the ballast water of 70 cargo ships ar-
riving from Japan in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Endangered Species
Update
In response to federal legislation, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has devel-
oped thousands of recovery and/or re-
introduction plans for endangered plant
and animal species. They are discussed
in the service's Endangered Species
Technical Bulletin. Budget cuts in the
Reagan years limited distribution, so the
Bulletin’s contents are now reprinted in
Endangered Species Update along
with longer articles, opinion and book
reviews. The total package provides an
interesting look at one form of restoration
— the restocking of individual species
into their original environment.
The photos of appealing red wolf pups in
newspapers around the nation signal better
times for this endangered mammal. Inten-
sified efforts to breed red wolves produced
13 successful litters this past spring, in-
creasing the population from less than 85
animals to nearly 120. The more than 30
new pups nationwide are excellent public
envoys for the wolf and the key to its
recovery.
The red wolf (Canis rufus) is native to the
southeastern states where it was nearly
extirpated as a feared and unwanted
predator. By the early 1970s, the species
had been reduced to a remnant population
on the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge
and private lands along the Gulf Coasts of
Texas and Louisiana. Researchers found
the wolves there endangered by continued
conflict with humans, parasites, and ge-
netic swamping from hybridization with
the coyote.
Endangered
Species
Update
Suzanne Jones,
Editor
$23/year (10
issues) from the
School of Natural
Resources, University
of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI 48109-
1115; 313/763-3243
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 6 :
$1 8/year (4
‘ issues) from Galli-
Fremontia
This journal, like most native-plant so-
ciety publications, seeks to educate the
public on the need to appreciate and
preserve their region's native plant pop-
ulations. An intelligent, horticulture/ge-
netics bent surfaces not only in its articles
about rare-plant propagation, but also in
probes regarding the long-range effects
of restorative plantings amongst native
plant populations. Good information on
exotic species control is typically avail-
able, as well. Recent articles include
“Restoration: Disneyland or a native
ecosystem?” and ‘‘Can native flora sur-
viye prescribed burns?”’. Interesting
reading no matter what your bioregion,
and one of the best examples of what
an organization might do to encourage
others to value their local landscape
and native flora.
Fremontia
Phyllis M. Faber,
Editor
fornia Native
Plant Society, 909
12th Street, Suite
116, Sacramento,
CA 95814;
916/477-2677
The Santa Ana ;
River woolly-star
in the Phlox family is one of California’s
rarest plants. It is now restricted to an area
of about eight square miles along the Santa
Ana River, north of the city of Redlands.
The plight of the woolly-star was acknowl-
edged in the fall of 1987 when it, along
with another Santa Ana River species, the
slender-horned spineflower, was listed as
endangered by the federal government.
Construction of the proposed Seven Oaks
Dam near where the Santa Ana River
emerges from the San Bernardino Moun-
tains will. . . eliminate annual flooding
and over a few decades all woolly-star
habitat will disappear and the subspecies
will become extinct.
Monitoring young Santa Ana woolly-star
plants growing in an open sandy habitat.
National Wetlands
Newsletter
For those interested in the legal and
policy aspects of wetland restoration,
this newsletter is definitely worth review-
ing. Wetland mitigation, 404 permitting,
‘no net loss,’’ and other wetland issues
are discussed in guest columns. Standard
features include updates on federal legis-
lative action, pertinent legal suits, as
well as to-the-point book reviews and a
detailed events calendar. | always look
forward to this engaging publication.
The Coalition for the Conservation of
Aquatic Habitat — otherwise known as
FISH — is a rather unlikely alliance. . . .
After agreeing that they had been unable
to wield enough force individually to effect
the preservation of fisheries habitat, the
coalitions members decided that “‘it would
be more fun to fight over more fish to
National Wetlands
Newsletter
Nicole Veilleux, Editor
$48/year (6 issues) from Environ-
mental Law Institute, 16 P Street NW,
Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036;
202/328-5150
harvest than /ess fish.’ And thus, the FISH
Coalition was born.
FISH, 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 110,
Bethesda, MD 20814-2199; (301) 897-8616.
In the Courts
United States v. Pozsgai, Cr. 88-00450 (E.D. Pa. July 13, 1989).
After filling a 14-acre tract of land in Pennsylvania despite a _
temporary restraining order and a court order to cease and desist,
the defendant underwent a jury trial and was convicted for fill-
ing wetlands in violation of §404 of the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act. The defendant was sentenced to three years in jail
and ordered to pay a $202,000 fine and restore the damaged
wetlands.
Natural Areas Journal
This publication provides reports from
natural areas about rare species man-
agement and monitoring as part of the
overall goal of ecosystem preservation.
Although it is not NAJ‘s major emphasis,
restoration has recently received more
attention (and thus more journal space)
as an important tool for the land man-
ager. It is well written, with a good
bibliography of recent publications about
restoration and management. Articles
from previous issues include ‘Structure
and composition of low elevation old-
growth forests in research natural areas
of southeast Alaska,’’ ‘‘Managing prairie
remnants for insect diversity,’’ and ‘‘De-
sign of a long-term ecological monitoring
program for Channel Islands National
Park, California.’’
The natural areas movement is not a new
phenomenon. By 1917 the Ecological So-
ciety of America had already formed a
Committee for the Preservation of Natural
Areas. As many recognize, Victor Ernest
Shelford at the University of Illinois was in-
strumental in organizing concern for na-
tural areas. By 1926, with people like
Henry Chandler Cowles at Chicago, Charles
Christopher Adams in New York, Robert
Wolcott in Nebraska, Forrest Shreve in the
Sonoran Desert, Asa Orrin Weese at Okla-
homa, and others, he produced a landmark
volume, Naturalist’s Guide to the Americas
(Shelford 1926). In my opinion, nothing
even remotely close to that work has been
done since. The book is a treasure-trove of
information, much of it still applicable,
even though many of the areas that were
discussed have long since vanished.
Natural Areas Journal
Greg F. Iffrig, Editor
$25 /year (4 issues) from Natural
Areas Association, 320 S. 3rd Street,
Rockford, IL 61104; 815/964-6666.
— —-s
Park Science
While the National Park Service is the ©
recipient of criticism from various circles,
it nevertheless maintains a solid commit-
ment to scientific, restoration-oriented
activities. Their in-house newsletter, Park
Science, documents those activities along
with myriad other NPS projects. Previous
issues have included articles entitled
“Non-native mountain goat management
undertaken at Olympia National Park,’’
“Endangered species restoration at Gulf
Islands Seashore,’ and ‘’Galapagos
botanical management provides per-
spective for Hawaii.”’
Prairie/Plains Journal
A true grassroots adventure, this news-
letter provides insights into ongoing res-
toration efforts on the native prairie,
riverine, and other unique native habitats
of the Nebraska landscape. Artistry,
botany, and history are exquisitely com-
bined to produce a delightful creation —
a bonding of nature and humans through
restoration activities.
Prairie/Plains Journal
$10 /year (2 issues) from Prairie
Plains Institute, 1307 L Street,
Aurora, NE 68818; 402/694-5535
Mormon Island Crane Meadows [on the
Platte River south of Grand Island] con-
tains a diversity of habitat types and
associated flora and fauna, many of which
are unique. Over 500,000 sandhill cranes
stage in the Platte River Valley for a month
each spring, 5-9 million ducks and geese
use this area for migration, breeding, and
feeding, and four federally threatened or
endangered bird species are dependent
on the Platte Valley.
Beaver dams such
as this one at
Mount Desert
Island in Acadia
NP are important
factors in estab-
lishing habitat for
/a variety of wild-
life including river
otter. Beaver-
created or modi-
fied wetlands
support an abun-
dance of fishes
and frogs, major
items in the otter’s
diet, as well as
providing isola-
tion and safe
resting places.
Park Science
Jean Mathews, Editor
Free (4 issues/year) from Park
Science, 4150 Southwest Fairhaven
Drive, Corvallis, OR 97333
Wildflower
This journal is very easy to read, yet
contains insightful horticultural information
for both lay and professional audiences.
Its articles are about native wildflowers,
their propagation and use in home land-
scaping as well as in revegetation projects.
While the intent is national in focus,
many pieces deal with vegetation native
to the southern and southwestern United
States. Articles from a recent issue include
“Task force recommends: wildflower
policy for Minnesota,’’ ‘Wild sunflowers:
heritage and resource,’’ and ‘‘Desert
botanical garden research: owl-clover
and commercial mixes.’’
Wildflower
John E. Averett, Editor
$25 /year (2 issues)
from National Wild-
flower Research Center,
2600 FM 793 North,
Austin, TX 78725;
512/929-3600
8
Many people are surprised to discover
that the honeybee, Apis mellifera, is only
one of approximately 3,500 species of
bees in America north of Mexico. Nearly
all of those are native species; however,
the honeybee, a native of the Old World,
was introduced long ago by European set-
tlers. Bumblebees, leaf-cutter bees, mason
bees, mining bees, oil bees, digger bees,
carpenter bees — the diversity of native
species is remarkable.
Other interesting journals and newsletters
also cross my desk which are more local or
specialized in nature. If they are located in
your vicinity or deal with a topic in which
you have an interest, | urge you to contact -
them. The local newsletters can be
especially helpful for putting you in touch
with restorationists in your area.
Plant Conservation
$35/year (4 issues) from The Center For
Plant Conservation, 125 The Arborway,
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617/524-6988.
Creek Currents
$15/year (4 issues) from Newsletter of the
Urban Creeks Council, 2530 San Pablo
Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702;
415/540-6669.
Missouri Prairie Journal
$20/year (4 issues) from The Missouri
Prairie Foundation, P. O. Box 200, Colum-
bia, MO 65205.
’ The Palmetto
$20/year (4 issues) from Florida Native
Plant Society, 2020 Red Gate Road,
Orlando, FL 32818; 407/299-1472.
Wetlands Research Update
free (2 issues/year) from United States
Environmental Protection Agency/Corvallis
‘Environmental Research Laboratory, 200 Wie
Southwest 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333. }
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 63
Strategies for biological diversity are undergoing a dramatic
conceptual shift. Nineteenth-century visions of untouched wil-
derness have given way successively, as has the landscape of
North America itself, to preservation of contained parks and
forests (‘‘sanctuaries’’), stewardship and, ultimately, inten-
sive management of natural areas. In fact; ‘‘managed natural
area’’ is no longer considered an oxymoron, evidence that we
have come to accept (in many cases reluctantly) the role of
human intervention in the perpetuation of naturally occur-
ring systems. And although it may be difficult to forego a
vision of ‘‘nature’’ apart from humanity, it is both practical-
ly and philosophically necessary to do so now. Restoration thus ©
offers the brightest future — and perhaps the only future we
would want to live in — for restoration ecology is simply the
most advanced expression of the emerging ethic and may allow
us to heal some of the damage that is being done to the planet.
—Don Falk, Center for Plant Conservation
In CONTRAST to the gloomy environmental predictions
and scenarios that have characterized ecological think-
ing in the past, restoration ecology is an enterprise with
the potential for optimism. We have no other choice but
to attempt restoration ecology — it is an essential ongoing
learning process intricately linked with our survival on
this planet. As such, it provides a relevant and exciting
context for educational programs.
Ecological awareness is attainable in many ways. What
is most necessary is nature. One needs to go to nature
to acquire a sense of the interrelatedness of all things. The
ultimate experiences in nature are identification exper-
iences; observing that natural objects and events are in-
terrelated, and seeing oneself as an essential part of this
interrelatedness. Through these experiences we realize
that the interests of nature are our own interests. This is
the heart of the new ecological consciousness. How can
our young people acquire this kind of ecological con-
sciousness when most of the time, most of them are com-
pletely out of touch with natural areas and ecological
processes? Although today’s world offers young people
many choices and opportunities, their experience with
natural areas and ecological processes is very limited.
I am establishing nature-study projects at several schools
in my region. The goal of the program is to create tangi-
ble environmental resources on school sites, in the form
of restoration projects where possible: interpretive native-
plant display gardens in small spaces, and ecological land-
scapes in larger spaces. Using existing environmental-
education curriculum materials, these plantings will pro-
vide hands-on experience by allowing students to actively
participate in environmental problem-solving.
If you are interested in initiating restoration projects or
native-plant projects on school sites, first form a project
committee consisting of teachers, students, staff, and
parents at each interested school. The committees will
plan, establish, develop, and support restoration projects
at their respective schools. Help each participating school
Don Waxman runs an environmental design and planning business in Petaluma, California. He is acting chairperson of a nonprofit
group, Petaluma Tree People, that organizes community tree-planting events on private and public properties. He can be contacted
at 2805 Eastman Lane, Petaluma, CA 94952; 707/778-8529.
64 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
—Richard Nilsen
~~ @
develop an initial curriculum library. Connect your proj-
ect with the projects of other local environmental
organizations that have related kinds of concerns and
agenda. Share resources, materials, and fundraising
strategies with them.
Develop a landscape approach that makes the best sense
given the school site and available resources. Teachers and
staff are often unaware of unused and neglected land at
their schools. Many of these areas are just never noticed
by teachers. Those who do notice them usually do not
recognize their ecological significance, or their value as
potential outdoor classrooms. In most cases, a simple walk
around the school grounds with teachers and staff to point
out these unused resources is all it takes to generate en-
thusiasm for a native-plant project. Some schools already
have many existing natural features which can be used
in environmental-education activities.
A great educational exercise for starting a restoration proj-
ect is to do a site survey and evaluation of these resources.
This could include vegetation mapping, soil analysis,
wildlife inventories, hydrological assessments, and listing
past and current impacts of nearby land-use practices and
developments. Similar study of local, relatively undisturb-
ed natural areas should be conducted concurrently for
contrast, as well as for ideas on how the school site might
be ecologically restored or improved.
If the school site doesn’t offer any significantly large areas
for restoration projects or ecological landscaping, smaller
areas can be developed using native plants to create in-
teresting interpretive displays. For example, try display-
ing some of the endangered plants from your region to
introduce the notions of rarity, endangerment, and the
conservation of biodiversity; display dominant species of
typical plant communities of your area to convey the
plant-community concept; display plants according to
- families to study botanical taxonomy; display plants used
by Native Americans and early settlers in your area —
ethnobotany; display plants with unique adaptations —
biogeography and evolution; display plants that attract
and depend upon certain wildlife — coevolution, life cycles
and symbiosis.
Many teachers think that they lack an adequate back-
ground for teaching a nature-based curriculum. Excellent
environmental-education curricula have been developed
and tested (see reviews); there is no need for teachers to
think that they have to develop their own. Many of these
materials have been developed for particular grade levels.
Even without books, teachers need not think they are in-
capable of teaching environmental education. Restoration
ecology projects demand a multifaceted approach, and
teachers will be surprised to find out that much of their
existing knowledge can be significantly applied. Those
who know least about environmental education, but who
are willing to learn along with their students, stand a good
chance of becoming excellent outdoor educators.
An outdoor-education specialist might be employed to
conduct inservice workshops with a teaching staff. Here
are some suggested workshop topics:
e explore the various ways we experience nature and
wilderness (or wild things — plants, landscapes,
animals, etc.)
e define ecological restoration and conservation biol-
ogy. Describe the ethical foundations for implementing
restoration projects. How .do processes of valuation re-
garding nature and/or wild things influence our ethics?
What is the conservation ethic? How can it be taught?
develop techniques to assess student attitudes toward
natural areas and ecological processes. Collect data on
Students and
teachers plant
native species to
create a nature trail
at Cherry Valley
Elementary School
in Petaluma, CA.
Photos by Don Waxman
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 65
student experiences with/in nature. Create methods
for interpreting the data.
® survey and analyze local environmental problems
and issues. Coordinate appropriate school-based ac-
tivities that attempt to solve these problems. Integrate
existing environmental-education lessons and acti-
vities into this effort.
Public-school teachers and staff are incredibly busy. In
most cases, the staff doesn’t have enough time to ade-
quately complete programs that have already been started.
Approach school administrators with a great deal of pa-
tience, and with as much understanding of their situa-
tion as is possible.
Don’t expect an outdoor nature-study area to be funded
with state-allocated funds for education — public schools
are usually broke. Many of our schools simply do not have
enough money to do what they are mandated to do. They
are short of staff and materials, and there is usually a large
wish list of things that need to be done. You will need
to raise funds another way. Usually, parent-teacher asso-
ciations raise funds throughout the year for different proj-
ects; local businesses, clubs, municipal departments, and
other organizations will either provide funds or donate
space, materials, and services for fundraising events.
Another possibility is to find a nonprofit organization that
is willing to adopt your program, and to help you write
proposals for funds to foundations, private corporations,
and government agencies.
Do not be stymied by bureaucracy. Some schools and
school districts will have a lot of problems with any
changes you propose for public-school properties. Risk
management has become a major concern in our age of
lawsuits. School and district administrators have to be
especially careful. Be patient. =
Project Wild
Project Wild is an interdisciplinary,
environmental and conservation edu-
cation program emphasizing wildlife.
There are three curriculum guides — !
elementary, secondary, and one called
Aquatic for grades K-12. Project Wild
activities are organized around a con-
ceptual framework comprising these ~_ &
major themes: awareness and appre-
ciation of wildlife, human values and
wildlife, wildlite and ecological systems,
wildlife conservation, cultural and social
interaction with wildlife, wildlife issues
and trends, and responsible human
actions regarding wildlife and eco-
logical systems.
Each Project Wild activity includes ob-
jectives, method, background for the
teacher, materials needed, procedures,
evaluation suggestions, recommended
grade level, school subject area(s), skills,
duration, group size, setting, concept,
and key vocabulary. The guides include
a glossary and several cross-referenced
indexes (lists of activities by grade level,
skills acquired, topics covered, etc.) to
Age: Grades 3-9
concepts into their daily teaching
Project Wild is a joint project of the '
Western Regional Environmental Edu-
cation Council and the Western Asso-
ciation of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
—Don Waxman
Project Wild activity guides are
available free of charge to partici-
pants in Project Wild workshops.
Workshops are open to educators
and youth-group leaders at nominal
charge. For more information, con-
tact Project Wild, P. O. Box 18060,
Boulder, CO 80308-8060;
303/444-2390.
66 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Materials: Large playing area (100 feet x
50 feet); about 500 feet of rope, string, or
six traffic cones for marking boundaries
help teachers incorporate wildlife-related (masking tape may be used if area is in
doors); two cardboard boxes; 100 tokens
strategy. (3 x 5 cards, poker chips, etc.).
Procedure: . . . This is a physically-involving
activity! Set up a playing field as shown in
the diagram, including spawning grounds,
downstream, upstream, and ocean... .
nih
Ye
: ie ;
CS ve
Cdn, Ne PROF
HOOKS AND LADDERS Ie a ds Bee Assign roles to each of the students.
Method: Students simulate
Pacific salmon and the hazards faced by
salmon in an activity portraying the life
cycle of these aquatic creatures.
Some will be salmon, others will be
potential hazards to the salmon... .
Begin the activity with all the salmon
in their spawning ground. The salmon
then start their journey downstream. The
first major hazard is the turbines at
the dam....
At most dams there are escape weirs to
guide migrating salmon past the turbines.
The student salmon cannot go around the
jump rope swingers, but they can slip
under the swingers’ arms if they do not
get touched while doing so. A salmon dies
if it is hit by the turbine (jump rope)... .
NOTE: Any salmon that “‘dies’’ at any
time in this activity must immediately
become part of the fish ladder. The
student is no longer a fish... .
Once in the open ocean, the salmon
can be caught by fishing boats. The sal-
mon must move back and forth across
the ocean area in order to gather four
tokens. Each token represents one year
of growth. Once each fish has four tokens
(four years’ growth) that fish can begin
migration upstream... .
—Aquatic
—— =
Manure, Meadows
and Milkshakes
This is a book full of wonderful games
and activities that are every bit as crea-
tive as its title. The lessons effectively
teach children the principles of ecology
through hands-on exercises. One fifth-
grader who participated in Manure,
Meadows and Milkshakes activities
said, ‘You have to learn about nature in
person. You have to taste it, feel it, see
it, and hear it.”’ —Don Waxman
a
Cinquains are a wonderful way to com-
bine feelings and facts about our world
into a poetic image. Easy to learn, easy
to do! Here’s how:
First line: one word, giving title
Second line: two words, describing title
Third line: three words, expressing an action
Fourth line: four words, expressing a feeling
Fifth line: one word, a synonym for the title
Ranger Game: Play this on a narrow trail
when your children are pushing and shov-
ing to be first. Number everyone off and
start up the trail. No ‘‘cuts’’. Place yourself
third in line. (You can talk to the two
ahead and also keep track of the gang
behind.) The first child is the ranger. When
you or the children spot something of in-
Urban Forestry for Children
An excellent set of activities and lessons
about trees. It has a large section in the
back that lists resources to be used in
conjunction with the lessons. This list in-
cludes descriptions of each resource,
and details about where they can be ac-
quired. Most are free to teachers, or are
very inexpensive. lessons include ‘’What
is a Tree,’ ‘‘How Trees Grow,”’ ‘’The Sea-
sons and Cycles,”’ ‘Building a Tree,”’
“Tree Identification,” ‘Importance of
Trees,’’ and “‘Understanding and Caring
for Trees.”” —Don Waxman
Urban Forestry for Children
Teachers may obtain this book free
from Cooperative Agricultural Exten-
sion, University of California, 4145
Branch Center Road, Sacramento,
CA 95827; 916/366-2013.
The Cottonwood (Populus fremontii) is
mentioned more often than any other
vegetation in the account of early explora-
tion of the West. They were signs of water
in arid lands and the sweet inner bark was
food for horses. On January 6, 1844,
John Fremont wrote: ‘Taking Kit Carson
with me | made a thorough exploration of
the neighboring valleys and found in a
ravine in the bordering mountains a good
camping place where there was water in
the springs and a sufficient quantity of
grass for the night. Overshadowing the
springs were some trees of the sweet cot-
tonwood which after a long interval of
absence, we again saw with pleasure,
regarding them as harbingers of better
country.’ Because explorer, John Fremont
often mentioned cottonwoods in his writings,
botanists named the tree after him.
Cottonwoods were very important to the
California Indians and pioneers. Indians
used the wood for making drums. (Ari-
zona Indians still use the wood for making
their Kachina dolls.) The Indians believed
the cottonwoods were beings of higher
intelligence and that misfortune would
follow if due respect were not paid to them.
—Trees: Urban Forestry for Children
their place in it.
Manure, Meadows
and Milkshakes
Eric Jorgensen, Trout Black,
and Mary Hallesy, 1986; 132 pp.
$9.95 ($11.45 postpaid) from The
Trust for Hidden Villa, 26870 Moody
Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022;
415/941-6119
(or Whole Earth Access).
terest have your ranger stand by it and
point it out to everyone as they walk by.
‘“‘Ranger Dan or Ann’’ then becomes the
caboose at the end of the line. Make sure
everyone has a chance to be a ranger.
Project Learning Tree
Like Project Wild, Project learning Tree
is an interdisciplinary, environmentally
focused supplementary curriculum pro-
gram. It is written by teachers and de-
signed for integration into the regular
curriculum at all grade levels. It focuses
a bit more on trees and forests than does
Project Wild, revealing the bias of the
American Forest Foundation and the
American Forest Council, which sponsor
and administer the program in conjunction
with the Western Regional Environmental
Education Council. Project learning Tree
uses the forest as a ‘‘window”’ into the
natural world, helping young people
gain an awareness and knowledge of
the world around them, as well as of
—Don Waxman
Project Learning Tree Guides
are available free to participants of
Project Learning Tree workshops. For
information, contact The American
Forest Council, 1250 Connecticut
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036.
More for kids
There are many. other excellent environ-
mental-education materials. Some very
noteworthy materials can be acquired
from Ranger Rick’s NatureScope, Na-
tional Wildlife Federation, 1412 16th
Street NW, Washington, DC 20036-
2266. Another excellent group of mater-
ials are the learning modules put out by
Outdoor Biology Instructional Strate-
gies, which can be obtained from the
lawrence Hall of Science, University of
California, Berkeley, CA 94720. —DW
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 67
Secrets of the Old Growth Forest
ORD
D Bursu
BY WENDELL BERRY
T IS CONVENTIONAL AT GRADUATION EXERCISES to congratulate
the graduates. Though I am honored beyond expression by your invita-
tion to speak to you today, and though my good wishes for your future
could not be more fervent, I think I will refrain from congratulations.
This, after all, is your commencement, and a beginning is the wrong
time for congratulations. Also I know enough by now of the performance of my
own generation that I look at your generation with some skepticism and some
anxiety. I hope that in fifty years, having looked back at the lives that you are now
commencing, your children and grandchildren will congratulate you.
More than one person over the last
year has written to warn us that What I want to attempt today is to say something useful about the problems and
our human foolishness is creating
environmental problems that will
barm Gaia. Since this magazine
the opportunities that lie ahead of your generation and mine. I know how desirable
it is that I should speak briefly, and I intend to do so.
helped publicize James Lovelock Toward the end of As You Like It, Orlando says: ‘‘I can live no longer by thinking.’
ion niskeegbenlhcaabentaly tobe lnc Lo He is ready to marry Rosalind. It is time for incarnation. Having thought too much,
ane TURRer Dears: dae inate he is at one of the limits of human experience, or human sanity.
for the Greek goddess of Earth, it ; ‘
suggests that life acts as a self- If his love does put on flesh, we know, he must sooner or later arrive at the op-
regulating system by controlling
posite limit, at which he will say, ‘‘I can live no longer without thinking.’
our planet's atmosphere), this
seems a good time to point out Thought — even consciousness — seems to live between these limits: the abstract
that these letter writers have it and the particular, the word and the flesh.
wrong. The mess we are making |
may well harm bumans (it al- All public movements of thought quickly produce a language that works as a code,
ready is), but it will not harm useless to the extent that it is abstract. It is readily evident, for example, that you
Gaia. If it comes to it, Gaia can can’t conduct a relationship with another person in terms of the rhetoric of the
get along without bumans just
pine civil rights movement or the women’s movement — as useful as those rhetorics may
ne, ank you. i
initially have been to personal relationships.
This also seems like a good place
for a few words from Wendell Ber- The same is true of the environment movement. The favorite adjective of this move-
ry, to help give the notion of en- ment now seems to be ‘'planetary.’’ This word is used, properly enough, to refer
vironmental restoration a context to the interdependence of places, and to the recognition, which is desirable and
and a proper sense of scale. Rich-
ard Sassaman heard this com-
mencement address to graduates But the word ‘'planetary’’ also refers to an abstract anxiety or an abstract passion
of the College of the Atlantic in that is desperate and useless exactly to the extent that it is abstract. How, after all,
Maine last year and suggested we : :
can anybody — an rticul — ?
sildiaktasinvetheat tbhecdie ybody — any particular body — do anything to heal a planet
run in Harper's. Wendell Berry's Nobody can do anything to heal a planet. The suggestion that anybody could do
forthcoming book (in April) is so is preposterous. The heroes of abstraction keep galloping in on their white horses
What Are People For, a collec- uF .
die cllesuase ruchibsbadsin Nant to save the planet — and they keep falling off in front of the grandstand.
Point Press. | —Richard Nilsen What we need, obviously, is a more intelligent — which is to say, a more accurate
growing, that no place on the earth can be completely healthy until all places are.
68 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
— description of the problem. The description of a problem as ‘“‘planetary’’ arouses
a motivation for which, of necessity, there is no employment. The adjective
‘‘planetary’’ describes a problem in such a way that it cannot be solved.
In fact, though we now have serious problems nearly everywhere on the planet,
we have no problem that can accurately be described as ‘‘planetary.’’ And, short
of the total annihilation of the human race, there is no planetary solution.
There are also no national, state, or county problems, and no national, state, or
county solutions.
That will-o’-the-wisp of the large-scale solution to the large-scale problem, so dear
to governments and universities and corporations, serves mostly to distract people
from the small, private problems that they may in fact have the power to solve.
The problems, if we describe them accurately, are all private and small. Or they
are so initially.
The problems are our lives. In the ‘‘developed’’ countries, at least, the large prob-
lems occur because all of us are living either partly wrong or almost entirely wrong.
It was not just the greed of corporate shareholders and the hubris of corporate ex-
ecutives that put the fate of Prince William Sound into one ship; it was also our
demand that energy should be cheap and plentiful. |
Our economies of community and household are wrong. The answers to the human
problems of ecology are to be found in economy. The answers to the problems of
economy are to be found in culture and in character.
To fail to see this is to go on dividing the world falsely between guilty producers
_and innocent consumers.
The ‘‘planetary’’ versions — the heroic versions — of our problems have attracted
_ great intelligence. But these problems, as they are caused and suffered in our lives,
our households and our communities, have attracted very little intelligence.
_ There are some notable exceptions. A few people have learned to do a few things
better. But it is discouraging to reflect that, though we have been talking about
most of our problems for decades, we are still mainly talking about them. We have
failed to produce the necessary examples of better ways. The civil rights movement
has not given us better communities. The women’s movement has not given us better
marriages or better households. The environment movement has not changed our
parasitic relationship to nature.
The reason, apparently, is that a change of principles or of talk or of thought is
impotent, on its own, to change life.
For the most part, the subcultures, the countercultures, the dissenters, and the op-
ponents continue mindlessly — or perhaps just helplessly — to follow the pattern
of the dominant society in its extravagance, its wastefulness, its dependences,
and its addictions. |
The old problem remains: How do you get intelligence out of an institution or an
organization?
My small community in Kentucky has lived and dwindled for a century at least
under the influence of four kinds of organization: governments, corporations,
schools, and churches — all of which are distant (either actually or in interest),
centralized, and consequently abstract in their concerns.
Governments and corporations (except for employees) have no presence in our com-
munity at all, which is perhaps fortunate for us, but we nevertheless feel the in-
difference or the contempt of governments and corporations for such communi-
ties as ours. 5M hi
We have had no school of our own for nearly thirty years. The school system takes
our young people, prepares them for ‘‘the world of tomorrow,’ which it does not
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 69
N obody
can do
anything to
heal a planet.
The
suggestion
that anybody
could do
SO 1S
preposterous.
NASA
Wildlife of the Rivers
Or
understandable
wish to
preserve
the planet
must
somehow be
reduced to
the scale
of our
competence.
70 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
expect to take place in any rural area, and gives back expert (that is, extremely
generalized) ideas.
The church is present in the town. We have two churches. But both have been used
by their denominations, for half a century at least, to provide training and income
for student ministers, who do not stay long enough even to become disillusioned.
For a long time, then, the minds that have most influenced our town have not
been of the town, and so have not tried even to perceive, much less to honor, the
good possibilities that are there. They have not wondered on what terms a good
and conserving life might be lived there.
In this, my community is not unique, but is like almost every other neighborhood
in our country and in the ‘‘developed"’ world.
The question that must be addressed, therefore, is not how to care for the planet,
but how to care for each of the planet’s millions of human and natural
neighborhoods, each of its millions of small pieces and parcels of land, each one
of which is in some precious and exciting way different from all the others.
Our understandable wish to preserve the planet must somehow be reduced to the
scale of our competence — that is, to the wish to preserve all of its humble households
and neighborhoods.
What can accomplish this reduction?
I will say again, without overweening hope, but with certainty nonetheless, that
only love can do it. Only love can bring intelligence out of the institutions and
organizations, where it aggrandizes itself, into the presence of the work that must
be done.
Love is never abstract. It does not adhere to the universe or the planet or the na-
tion or the institution or the profession, but to the singular sparrows of the street,
the lilies of the field, ‘‘the least of these my brethren.”’
Love is not, by its own desire, heroic. It is heroic only when compelled to be. It
exists by its willingness to be anonymous, humble, and unrewarded.
The older love becomes, the more clearly it understands its involvement in par-
tiality, imperfection, suffering, and mortality. Even so, it longs for incarnation. It
can live no longer. by thinking.
And yet, to put on flesh and do the flesh’s work, it must think.
In his essay on Kipling, George Orwell wrote: ‘'All left-wing parties in the highly
industrialized countries are at bottom a sham, because they make it their business
to fight against something which they do not really wish to destroy. They have in-
ternationalist aims, and at the same time they struggle to keep up a standard of
life with which those aims are incompatible. We all live by robbing Asiatic coolies,
and those of us who are ‘enlightened’ all maintain that those coolies ought to be
set free; but our standard of living, and hence our ‘enlightenment’, demands that
the robbery shall continue.’’*
This statement of Orwell’s is clearly applicable to our situation now; all we need
to do is change a few nouns: The religion and the environmentalism of the highly
industrialized countries are at bottom a sham, because they make it their business
to fight against something which they do not really wish to destroy. . . . We all
live by robbing nature. . . but our standard of living . . . demands that the robbery
shall continue. _ |
We must achieve the character and acquire the skills to live much poorer than we
do. It is either that or continue merely to think and talk about changes that we
are inviting catastrophe to make.
* “Rudyard Kipling,’ A Collection of Essays by George Orwell, Doubleday Anchor Books, 1954,
pp. 126-127.
Bs
P ¢
iow
The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because
we are dependent upon what is wrong. .
But that is the addict’s excuse, and we know that it will not do.
How dependent, in fact, are we? How dependent are our neighborhoods and com-
munities? How may our dependencies be reduced? To answer these questions will
require better thoughts and better deeds too than we have been capable of so far.
I am not trying to mislead you, or myself, about the gravity of our situation. I think
that we have hardly begun to grasp the seriousness of the mess we are in.
Our most serious problem, perhaps, is that we have become a nation of fantasists.
We believe, apparently, in the infinite availability of finite resources. We persist in
land use methods that reduce the potentially infinite power of soil fertility to a finite
quantity — which we then proceed to waste as if it were an infinite quantity. We
have an economy that depends, not upon the quality and quantity of necessary
goods and services, but on the moods of a few stockbrokers. We believe that de-
mocratic freedom can be preserved by people ignorant of the history of democracy,
and indifferent to the responsibilities of freedom.
Our leaders have been for many years as oblivious of the realities and dangers of
their time as were George III and Lord North. They believe that the difference
between war and peace is still the overriding political difference — when, in fact,
the difference is diminished to the point of insignificance. How would you describe
the difference between modern war and modern industry — between, say, strip
mining and bombing, or between chemical warfare and chemical manufacturing?
The.difference seems to be only that in war the victimization of humans is directly
intentional and in industry it is ‘‘accepted’’ as a ‘‘trade-off.’’
Were the catastrophes of Love Canal, Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Exxon Valdez
episodes of war or of peace? They were, in fact, peacetime acts of aggression, inten-
tional to the extent that the risks were known and ignored.
We are involved everywhere in a war against the world, against our freedom, and
indeed against our existence.
Our industrial accidents, so-called, should be looked upon as revenges of Nature.
We forget that Nature is necessarily party to all our enterprises, and that she im-
poses conditions of her own.
Now she is plainly saying to us: ‘If you put the fates of whole communities or cities
or regions or ecosystems at risk in single ships or factories or power plants, then
I will furnish the drunk or the fool or the imbecile who will make the necessary
small mistake.’ |
And so, graduates, my advice to you is simply my hope for us all:
Beware the justice of Nature.
Understand that there can be no successful human economy apart from Nature,
or in defiance of Nature. .
Understand that no amount of education can overcome the innate limits of human
intelligence and responsibility. We are not smart enough or conscious enough or
alert enough to work responsibly on a gigantic scale.
Make a home. Help to make a community. Be loyal to what you have made.
Put the interest of the community first.
Love your neighbors — not the neighbors you pick out, but the ones you have.
Love this miraculous world that we did not make, that is a gift to us.
So far as you are able, make your lives independent of the industrial economy, which
thrives by damage.
Find work, if you can, that does no damage. Enjoy your work. Work well. m
S.
far as you
are able,
make your
lives
independent
of the
industrial
economy
which
thrives
by
damage.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 7 i
HAVE CONSCIOUSLY SHIED AWAY from writing
about doing restoration work for years for two ap-
parently contradictory reasons. First, it all seems
OW O so simple and obvious to me: water flows downhill.
The other side of this coin is that each erosion
Heat Th
BY JACK MONSCHKE
problem and the resulting attempt at restoration is total-
ly unique and site-specific. It’s not clear-cut. I depend,
not on a scientific formula, but on getting the feel of a
situation. How can I write about that?
I am hoping here to set out a way for you to get a feel
for the land, a way of looking at a situation so that you
really see it, and some general guidelines that will lead
you to discovering for yourself how to lessen our human
impact on the land in general and how to heal damaged
land. When I am beginning a project, I spend a lot of time
just walking the land and quieting myself. Then I begin
to take notes, and the ideas just come. I have incredible
respect for the power of nature and how little control I
Every piece of land is different. This perception has even entered our language in the term ‘'site-specific.’’ Every restoration project is
unique as well. The principles behind the work remain the same — careful observation, timely intervention, willingness to experiment
and to stick around for the long haul.
The land in this article is 290 steep, logged-over acres near the headwaters of Salmon Creek, a tributary of the Eel River, on California's |
north coast. Jack Monschke, 45, bas been restoring it for 18 years. He is currently a consultant for a timber company, dealing with log-
ging practices and long-range watershed management. Jack's wife Jonelle provided the illustrations.
Thanks for this article's publication go to Mary Siler Anderson, who puts out the montbly Star Route Journal ($10/year from P. O.
Box 1451, Redway, CA 95560). Having previously interviewed Jack, Mary suggested his work for this issue, and did the initial draft
for this article.
72 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
—Richard Nilsen
Jack Monschke
(Far left) Jack and nine-year-old Kasara stand in exactly the same place they stood eight years ago (center), when the
same section of the creek had just undergone heavy-equipment work. Today the creek bed is restored, and planted trees
prevent erosion. In 1981, before any work was done on it, the creek bed was filled with debris (upper right).
have over it. Yet, 1 was recently inspired by this statement
in a SEVA newsletter: ‘‘The worst mistake is to do nothing
because you can only do a little.’ —Edmund Burke.
The great thing about doing restoration work is that you
get to work with the incredible healing potential of Mother
Nature. When you recognize this natural process, prob-
lems that seemed hopeless can be solved and you can ac-
complish amazing things. The first step in healing is to
get to know the land, walking and observing it through
all seasons, learning to understand the process that is heal-
ing, and then carefully and respectfully nurturing this
natural process.
A specific way to get to know the land is in terms of water-
shed. When a drop of water hits the peak of your roof,
it goes down one way or the other, and runs down to the
valleys where it is concentrated. Just as the valleys in your
roof drain the slopes of your roof, so the valleys in nature
drain the slopes from the ridgetop on one side to the
ridgetop on the other. The entire area that is drained is
the watershed.
So the first thing you can do is identify the watersheds
on your land, and I’m talking about really small water-
courses here because that’s how this all begins. Begin by
following running water upstream (often in small
drainages water will be flowing only when it’s raining).
By following the watercourses upstream you will eventual-
ly be led to the divide between watersheds. This can be
almost flat, or jagged and steep (think of the Continen-
tal Divide). If you watch the water carefully, you will even-
tually find the place where it runs one way on one side
and the other way on the other side. Identifying and
understanding these watersheds large and small is a way
to see what's happening on your land and a key to learn-
ing how to make changes where changes need to be made.
Erosion of the soil takes place where the binding and pro-
tective qualities of the earth are insufficient to stand
against the energy of moving water. Much current ero-
sion is the result of man artificially altering the watersheds,
either by changing the vegetation, increasing the volume
of water, or changing the gradient, all of which are inter-.
dependent. Water has great energy, and this energy in-
creases when it is concentrated and when it drops fast.
You can see when erosion is happening by noticing wheth-
er water is running clear or muddy. Muddy water means
that active cutting is happening somewhere in that water-
shed. In the very simplest terms you can alleviate erosion
by dissipating the energy of water at the point where it
meets the soil.
If you build a new house that doesn't have rain gutters,
the water drops off your eaves and begins cutting into the
bare soil below. Things have been altered by your building:
the gradient has been changed because the slope of your
roof is different from the slope of the land that it covers,
and the vegetation has been eliminated. The energy of
the water has been changed, and the protective covering
of the earth has been removed. You can mitigate this ero-
sion in several ways. You can plant something below the
:
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 73
eaves that will break the impact and hold the soil or you
can physically protect the soil by covering it with a deck
or gravel path or you can eliminate the water by placing
a gutter. However, if you do put in a gutter, you are fur-
ther concentrating the water and must therefore inten-
sify your protection at the point where you bring that
water down.
Say you are out in the rain following your watersheds
around, and you see a rivulet or stream that’s muddy.
Follow it upstream. If you come to a fork, you might see
a clear stream and a muddy stream running into each
other. Keep on the trail of the muddy one. Sooner or
later you'll come to the place where the erosion is ac-
tually occurring. If you're lucky, there will be a single,
easily identifiable source: your dog just dug up a gopher
hole, or a small bank is caving in because a branch di-
verted water against it, or a muddy rivulet is running
off a poorly drained dirt road. Sometimes, though, there
will be a number of problems, some of which are less
easy to identify, and it’s the accumulation of many con-
ditions — the cumulative impact — that is turning the
water muddy.
Splash (or sheet) erosion is caused by raindrops hitting
bare mineral soil. Soil should always have a protective
cover, either living or dead, i.e., plants or mulch and
preferably both. The method I use most often to protect
bare soil is to seed and mulch.
I use different seed mixes depending on the site (steep-
ness, soil type, soil moisture, etc.) and its use (pasture,
future forest, front yard, etc.). A mix that I have found
adaptable for many different conditions is 3/4 annual rye
and 1/4 perennial rye. I often add clovers and/or other
legumes. (A good source for more information for your
specific area is your local nursery, an agricultural exten-
sion office, or Federal Soil Stabilization office.) I then cover
the seed with a layer of straw. Approximately 4,000 lbs.
per acre, or 10 lbs. per 100 square feet, works out well
because it allows the seed to come through while still pro-
viding physical protection from splash erosion. There is
a delicate balance between the protection of a mulch and
the growth of a living ground cover, and the choice of
the correct combination is very site-
specific. The mulch doesn’t have to be
straw; any sort of organic debris, like
branches or leaves, will do. For a road,
use gravel or pavement. The bottom
line is that bare earth needs protec-
tion or it will erode. If it’s an emergen-
cy situation, even plastic can be used
to cover the soil. The ideal time to seed
and mulch in the Pacific Northwest is
in the fall just before the onset of the
winter rains. }
Another way erosion commonly oc-
curs is through bank cutting — when
the force of the water flowing in a
channel cuts into the side(s) of the
channel because of a physical diver-
sion (small slide, uprooted tree, etc.),
or because of changes in the gradient,
74 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
the volume of water flowing the channel, or the vegeta-
tion on the banks. My first choice for protecting an
eroding bank is to line it with rock; this is called riprap.
You can also use wood, sod, or plantings of heavy-rooted
plants that don’t mind having wet feet. Even though rock
riprap provides the best immediate protection for the
bank, I always try to include plantings within the riprap.
for stability, appearance, and the long-term benefits to
the ecosystem. There are certain trees that thrive along
streams. They don't mind having their roots under water
or having a few feet of silt dumped on them, and if they
fall over, they have the ability to resprout. In our area red-
wood, alder, and willow have these characteristics, and
I use them a lot.
Erosion also occurs from downcutting. This is where a
gully is forming and getting deeper; think of the Grand
Canyon! If this is happening, you need to look for the
knickpoint, which is the point where there is a dramatic
change in the gradient of the watercourse. There are many
different reasons why a knickpoint develops. It can be
caused by something quite small like a rock or a branch
on a small watercourse. Because of the nature of kinetic
energy, the cutting power of the water increases
geometrically with the increased drop and eventually
creates a gully, which migrates upstream. First, you want
to stop the downcutting at the knickpoint by eliminating
the drop. Rock is best to use here because it not only holds
firm, but also because it dissipates the force of the water.
Think of a waterfall. The cutting force of that water as
it drops is incredibly strong. But in a cascade, where the
water flows along from boulder to boulder with lots of
aerated whitewater, the force of the water has been broken
up. Wherever you see white foamy water, you know that
its cutting force has been reduced. By changing the knick-
point from a fall to a cascade, you greatly reduce the cut-
ting energy, and if rock is placed correctly, the gully will
stop its migration upslope. If the bottom of a gully has
no protection, it can be actively eroding even without a
specific knickpoint. Rock, woody debris, heavily rooted
grasses can all help stop active downcutting when plac-
ed in the bottom of a gully.
If you put something in the bottom of a freshly cut V-
shaped gully, however, it serves to transfer the force of
the water away from the bottom of the gully to the sides,
Redwood-slab check dams dissipate the force of the water,
creating a graceful, gentle fall. |
CHECK DAMS “CHECK” oR
DISSIPATE The ENERGY oF
WE FLOW ¢ THUS PRoTE
THE CHANNEL FROM THY
EROSION.
and then you might have bank-cutting. So you often need
to protect the sides as well, by lining the channel in such
a way that both the bottom and the sides are protected.
If material and money are limited, you can build a series
of check dams, which means you don't try to line the
whole channel with rock, but do it intermittently. Check
dams can accumulate sediment and dissipate the force
of the water effectively if they are constructed properly.
DMM CAN CREATE AKHIK- Ss But check dams can be tricky to build, are site-specific,
FONT 4 THUS A GULLY. and are never as trustworthy as lining the entire chan-
nel. If experimenting with check dams is appealing to you,
start slowly on a small, non-critical drainage and then
watch your results carefully. This way you will get the feel
of how they work in your specific situation.
I've found that juncus planting works as effectively on
meadow gullies as living check dams. (Juncus is a heavy
rush natural to this area, and it is very tolerant of wet
soils.) As the years pass, the juncus grows, traps sediment,
and turns the V-gully into a U-gully and finally into a
swale. In fact, you can throw juncus and sedge roots into
the bottom of a gully before placing rock or woody de-
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 75
HOW SLUMPS § SLIDES HAPPEN:
?
Toe OF
RIGHT BAN
bris, and they will often re-sprout through the rock the
next winter.
When you have bank cutting occurring along a stream,
at some point the cutting may become so great that the
toe of the sloped bank is removed and the undercut bank
slumps into the stream. This brings us to what I call
slumps and slides. This action can set up a chain reac-
tion. The slide creates a temporary dam which leads to
bank cutting on the other side of the watercourse, which
creates a slide, and so on, Protect the bank, and especially
the toe of that bank, with something — rock, if possible.
Try to keep the water off the toe. With some slumps and
slides, the water which is supersaturating the soil and con-
tributing to its instability is actually subsurface. Then you
need to put in drainage facilities to release that water to
the surface. You might also find that water is running on-
to that sliding toe from above, and in that case you want
to use waterbars or diversions to keep the water off that
unstable section of the bank. Sometimes, in a very dif-
ficult situation — and I have this exact situation on my
road — all three of these conditions are present.
If you have a situation where big slumps and/or slides are
‘
76 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
happening, first spend some time just watching it and try
to get a feeling for what’s going on. Then call for help.
Finding experts in this field can be difficult depending
on where you live and what your problem is, but for
starters find the most experienced and skilled heavy-
equipment operator in your area and then determine
whether that person has experience dealing with similar
problems. Seeking help from professional experts —
engineers, geologists, hydrologists, etc. — can be cost-
prohibitive for the small landowner, and it’s often possi-
ble to get very sound advice from the person who will
actually be doing the work.
When I first started creek restoration work, I tried to do
it all by hand. I quickly learned that it wasn’t practical
to go in and remove a few hundred yards of fill by hand.
Heavy equipment is often necessary, although after the
Jack Monschke
(Before)
Section of creek where bank
cutting was causing a slide.
The bank was an unhealed
wound constantly being erod-
ed by high flows. The shallow
creek bed was a poor habitat
for fish.
(After)
Tree planting and rock protec-
tion on the eroding bank have
stopped all active erosion. The
pool here is approximately
30’ in diameter, an excellent
fish habitat.
fie RS na eae UPS
heavy equipment work is done, I almost always go back
in and touch up the work by hand, placing small rock,
etc. | am very lucky in that I work with a highly skilled
heavy-equipment operator. We can go into a creek, and
he will not damage any vegetation we have chosen to keep.
But your average random cat skinner is not this skilled
or sensitive, so you need to be selective when choosing
one.
Sometimes watercourses are diverted totally out of their
natural channels. In the Pacific Northwest ‘on the vast
acres of logged-over lands, these diverted watercourses
are often the single most common source of stream
sediments. When the loggers arrived in the old days, they
cut roads wherever they wanted, and often when they
were done they left the roads in place without putting
THE PURPOSE oF
- oD WATERBAR IS TO
Get THE wateR OFF
THE FREQUENCY 4 SIZE OF WATERBARS
h DEPEND ON MANY FACTORS: HOW STEEP YOUR
KoAD 15, How Wel IT IS CROWNES (OR How /
Se/EReLY RUTTED) HON OFTEN You DRWE
ITLANP WHETHER YOu CAN STAND BiG
BUMPS), ETC.
in any drainage facilities (culverts, bridges, waterbars,
etc.). So many, many watercourses were diverted com-
pletely out of their natural drainages and forced to find
new ways. This is a common problem, but it is often
relatively easy to resolve: look for the original drainage
and return the stream to its old home where it belongs.
In some situations, however, the water has flowed in its
newly formed gully for so long that to change it back may
cause more erosion than it stops. This is a site-specific
situation, and I advise careful observation over time.
When the water is returned to its original channel, the
newly formed gully still exists and may need to be treated.
Around here most of us live on land that was roaded with
very little thought given to erosion, and roads are the main
cause of most of the active erosion that’s going on today.
If you have the opportunity to build your own road, the
most important thing to look for is natural watershed pat-
terns. Identify these and then change them as little as
possible. The best roads are built on ridges (those divides
between watersheds) and are crowned so the water can
run off both sides. A ridgetop road is the safest and most
stable because when you build this way, you are not
changing the gradient or the volume of water flowing in
the drainages. You are only changing the vegetation, and
EXCAVATE THAT “CIKOSSING” GOK)
TO RETURN THE waATeR To ITS
ORIGINAL Course.
building narrow roads and leaving as many trees as pos-
sible will even minimize that.
A road on a hillside is constructed by cutting and filling.
To lessen the impact, outslope the road gently (it doesn’t
even need to be noticeable) so that the water that comes
off the slope and the water that falls on the road itself
will flow across the road and down the hillside. Outslop-
ing the road can be a safety problem if you live in an area
with snow and ice because if you go into a skid, the
tendency will be to slide to the outside of the road and
over the bank. If outsloping isn’t practical, an inboard
ditch and cross-road drains must be installed.
Plant and mulch both the cut and fill, the upslope and
downslope, to minimize the overall change to the vegeta-
tion and eliminate or minimize splash (sheet) erosion.
Keep all watercourses that the road crosses in their natural
drainages. This is done by proper position and placement
of culverts, a major subject in itself.
Steel culverts are expensive, and what happened around
here was that the people who put in the roads tried to
save money by putting in as few culverts as possible, with
inboard ditches along the road. The idea was that the
water from a little watershed would hit the road and flow
CORRECT FOSITIONING
OF CULVERT:
CUL/ERT OUTFLOW AT ORIGINAL—
GRADE WITH ENERGY Dissipation
IF NECESSARY
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 77
into and along an inboard ditch until it came to a culvert,
at which point the water would flow under the road and
get dumped out on the downhill side of the road. This
doesn’t work because the volume of water dumped out
at a given spot gets greatly increased, the gradients are
drastically changed, and the vegetation has been chang-
ed by cutting and filling to build the road in the first place.
The results of this method are road failures, and bank
failures both above and below the road, plus lots of
eroding soil. ;
The right solution is to put in a culvert at every place
where the road crosses a watercourse. They may be small
culverts, but they are necessary so that volume and gra-
dient of the runoff is altered as little as possible. The
money spent on culverts when building a road right will
save you a great deal of money on maintenance cost and
also eliminate anxiety and eroding soil in the future.
Culverts generally need to be placed by a backhoe or ex-
cavator, and it’s important to check around in your area
for a good heavy equipment operator, one with sensitivi-
ty to the land and water and the way they work together.
A good backhoe operator will place your culverts correctly
at the original grade and at the exact location of the water-
courses it is draining. .
THE PURPOSE OF A TRASH RACK
IS TO PREVENT SEBRIS FROM AUGGING A CULVERT.
A TRASH RACK CAN
ee Sone Ror teen
- 1
Woor.
THEREFORE THE SPACES
NEG 70 BE SMALLER,
THAN THE DIAMETER OF
THE CULVERT.
Make sure that as the water flows into the culvert on the
inboard side, it does not flow under the culvert or erode
the fill on the sides of the culvert because this will eat
away little caves under your road surface. Sometimes you
have to protect this point with rock or sandbag riprap.
In order to decrease the possibility of a culvert plugging
during winter storms, I recommend placing a trash rack
made of steel re-bar at the inlet. A properly designed trash
rack will keep culverts clear of obstructions without caus-
ing other drainage problems. Make sure that where the
water flows out of the culvert, it returns exactly to that
drainage where it was flowing before the road and culvert
were there. This drainage has spent centuries adapting
itself to carry that stream. If it is impossible to place the
outflow of the culvert exactly at the original grade and
the water must fall some distance onto unprotected soil,
dissipate the energy of that water and lessen the impact
of the gradient change you have created. This can be done
by using a culvert downchute with a rock pile below to
dissipate the water’s energy.
Winter road maintenance is crucial. I walk my roads dur-
78 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
\
ing the first good rain, checking all trash racks and/or
culvert inlets to make sure there are no obstructions. I
also check all ditches, both inboard and cross-road, to
make sure they are capable of carrying the runoff of a
heavy storm. The small ditches that drain the surface
water off the road usually have to be redone every year,
because summer driving wears them down. During a rain
the water in these ditches should run fast enough so that
it doesn’t deposit sediment and plug, but slow enough
to keep from downcutting. This is another case where
close observation and fine-tuning is critical.
I also walk my roads during the first very heavy storm,
removing debris if necessary and checking all culvert
outlets to be sure there isn’t any downcutting. Always walk
your roads during any heavy flooding storm and follow
the above procedures. Winter maintenance can save you
thousands of dollars. It’s preventive maintenance at its
best.
The same rules that apply to siting a road also apply to
siting a house and garden. Put your home and garden
where they change the natural watershed as little as possi-
ble. Don’t just bulldoze in a big flat and then have it slump
away. Fill is very unstable. Unless you're willing to ter-
race it, a garden should not be on a grade of more than
10 percent. A garden is in constant disturbance, and in
terms of erosion it never has a chance to heal. I think the
most important thing in planning where to build and
garden is to take the time to really get to know your land
before making any changes. |
One of the most beneficial things people can do for any
land is to plant trees, which help prevent erosion in many
ways. First, the impact of rain is broken up by the canopy;
second, the roots and humus absorb much more water
than bare soil; and finally, roots provide structural bind-
ing strength to soil. Although grass does this work also,
it is less effective than trees. The water that has been ab-
sorbed by the ground is released slowly over time. In a
healthy forest a lot of the water absorbed during the
winter rains is released over the whole summer. I recom-
mend planting trees along all roads and streams, and
anywhere trees have grown in the past and have not
reestablished themselves naturally. If you have a lot of
non-forested land, and it used to support trees (stumps
are the obvious indicator here), the land will support trees
again. You might have to give the seedlings a little shade
and water for a year or two, but getting the root struc-
ture back and the canopy overhead is one of the simplest,
most effective and most rewarding things you can do to
heal the land.
It's important to choose the right planting stock. The
Agricultural Extension office and State Nursery office can
help you get the proper stock for your area. I have had
a much higher survival rate planting bare-root stock than
containerized stock on harsher sites, and for that reason,
I prefer to plant bare-root, although the planting takes
more skill and patience. It was really hard for me to ac-
cept this, but trees like to be planted in bare, mineral soil.
Bare-root trees don’t like humus, and young trees are hurt
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by competition with grasses. To prepare the ground,
scrape off all the existing grass and debris down to the
bare soil. This is called scalping. If you’re working by
hand, scrape off a 30’’ square and plant in the middle
of it. There is a great tool made-now for scalping called,
of course, a scalper. The tool for planting bare-root seed-
lings is called a hoe-dad. Both functions of scalping and
planting are combined in one tool called a sodbuster,
which is perfect for the smaller landowner who doesn't
have large acreage to prepare for planting.
If you're planting a large area, have a Caterpillar do what
is called mechanical site preparation. When I do this, I
get the best tree seedling survival rate by clearing 10- to
12-foot swaths with the Cat’s blade tipped so that all the
grass and debris is pushed to the downside to make a
berm. Then I leave a 10-foot section on either side of that
swath untouched to act as a filter strip. It’s important that
these are made on the contour of the slope so that they
act as terraces breaking up the energy and dispersing the
concentration of runoff.
In California you can buy 1,000 one- or two-year-old tree
seedlings for about $150 from the state nursery. If you
plant them right, they will cover approximately three
acres. There are government programs to help you reforest
your land. Some people are suspicious of government pro-
grams, but I’ve had a very positive working relationship
with government cost-sharing programs for 18 years.
They've made it possible for me and my clients to do a
lot of conservation work that otherwise would have been
impossible because of cost constraints. Even though the
programs are there to encourage forest products for future
harvest, there's nothing in the programs that says you have
to harvest.
There are times when the microclimate and the soil con-
ditions have been changed so much that the natural
vegetation won't survive. When I can't get a native species
to work, I will introduce a non-native one, but I will check
it out to see that it’s not something that will dominate
{
the native species. For example, I’ve never used Argen-
tine pampas grass, although its root binding is great for
erosion control, because it can take over a clearcut or other
disturbed area, and then the native species can’t get
started. Sometimes I'll plant a non-native species as a
nursery crop to slightly alter the micro climate and thus
enable a native species to survive in the future.
If deer browsing is a problem, I have found that 3’’ x 24”’
seedling protection tubes have been very effective on
young fir trees to get them above browse height. These
tubes are stiff plastic mesh and protect the leaders of the
little trees as they grow. You have to move them up just
before new growth each spring. On fast-growing trees the
tubes will allow the trees to get above browse height in
2-3 years, compared to trees I have watched that were
stunted for 10-20 years without any browse protection.
ts
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ROMO od
In my stream work, after years of working for total pro-
tection of the banks, I’ve been working more lately for
the fish. The most stable channel in terms of erosion con-
trol is not the most ideal condition for fish. They need
pools and diversity in the stream channel. I've started
leaving certain structures in the channels, carefully plac-
ed, to cause downcutting, thus creating little pools that
loosen up the gravel so the fish can spawn, and also
creating nice living places (rearing habitats). I also put
in woody debris, which I originally considered an erosion
threat and unsightly, to provide food and hiding places
for the fish. The riparian, or streamside, vegetative cover
is important for the stream and for the fish. I plant red-
woods, alders, and willows below the flood high water
level because these trees can thrive with wet feet and be-
ing knocked over and covered with silt.
When I moved to our land 18 years ago, our stream was
totally trashed. The loggers used the stream bed as a haul
road to take out logs because in those days there were
no forest practice rules. The stream then ran underground
a lot, under yards of fill and tons of debris. We moved
the debris out and placed it above the high water level, .
removed fill and defined the channel where necessary by
placement of rock. We planted exposed banks with grass
and trees (alder, redwood, and fir), and protected existing
trees with tubes. It is amazing how fast it came back. Now
our creek is a beautiful little stream with mossy banks
and trees and pools, and it can support fish.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 79
|
International
Reforestation Suppliers
This is the source Jack Monschke uses
for his seedling-protection tubes (see
preceding article); he also praises their
great service. No chainsaws, although
there is a saw-blade-on-a-rod gizmo for
harvesting Christmas trees that’s bound
to find its way into some bad slasher
movie. Besides forestry gear, if you need
to set up a weather station, fight a fire,
read a map or measure just about any-
thing, this is a good place to find
the tools. —Richard Nilsen
[Suggested by Jack Monschke]
International
Reforestation Suppliers
Catalog free from International
Reforestation Suppliers, P. O. Box
5547, Eugene, OR 97405;
800/321-1037.
McLEOD TOOL
A fire line favorite, the McLeod
Tool offers many real scalping
benefits with its combination rake
and hoe features. Excellent for
scalping light debris and
vegetation, duff, and heavily
burned sites.
« Constructed of tempered
12 gauge steel.
« Hoe is 11” wide — 5” deep.
« Rake features 6 heavy duty
tines — 3'2" long.
« Handle length — 48”.
e Sh. Weight: 5 Ibs.
Tubex Treeshelters
A tight fence can keep deer away from
young trees, but fences are expensive,
and most do nothing to protect against
the munching of smaller critters. This can
be crucial in places where winter snows
cover the ground and hungry voles or
rabbits will girdle the tender bark of
young trees. | had neighbors once with
a deer-fenced young apple orchard. The
snow-pack came and a porcupine wad-
dled over the top of the sheep wire and
proceeded to spend the rest of the winter
eating the entire orchard.
Tubex Treeshelters are like individual tree
fences. Unlike the open-mesh seedling
protectors Jack Monschke uses (see pre-
ceding page) these are solid tubes of
twin-walled plastic. Both kinds protect
against rodents as well as deer, although
on conifers it is really the leader, or
growing tip, that most needs protecting
(if it gets nibbled, you get a forked
timber tree). Tubex Treeshelters were
developed in England in 1979 and are
now used throughout Europe. By pro-
viding an enclosed environment they
speed growth, although fans of the mesh
protectors claim these mini-greenhouses
can make trees susceptible to hardening-
off problems when removed.
—Richard Nilsen
80 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
ITEM DESCRIPTION UNIT = PRICE
Hazel Hoe Scalper Complete $ 31.05
w/Handle
Hazel Hoe Blade Only 24.00
_ Replacement Handle 7.05
HAZEL HOE SCALPER
Osborne Pattern Adze Hoe -
Like the McLeod, the Hazel Hoe
is another double duty tool for
use during both fire season and
planting season. Designed for
heavy grubbing, trenching, and
scalping, the Hazel Hoe will cut
easily and deeply into thick
grassy planting sites.
« Made of special alloy tool steel.
¢ Electrically tempered.
_ « Blade width — 6%”.
Blade length — 5%”.
Handle length — 36”.
Sh. Weight: 5 Ibs.
e e e
_ ITEM DESCRIPTION
UNIT PRICE
McLeod Too! $ 62.50
Replacement Handle 6.50
Tubex Treeshelters
Brochure free from Tubex, 75
Bidwell Street, St. Paul, MN 55107;
612/228-0535.
Native Seed
Foundation
One of the real nitty-gritty issues in
restoration work is genetic diversity within
individual species. A rose ain't a rose
ain’t a rose, and neither is a salmon or
a mountain hemlock tree. These fine-
grained distinctions are overlooked when,
say, Yellowstone burns up and gets re-
seeded from airplanes hauling in seed
grown two states away. Expediency and
integrity are always a couple states
apart anyway, so it is a real delight to
find a small seed company trying to do
something about this problem.
The Native Seed Foundation collects
and sells seed of species native to the
Pacific and Intermountain Northwest,
and for their tree species at least, they
tell you which national forest (or Cana-
dian provincial park) the seed came from.
Wholesale or retail, by the pound or by
the ounce, here you can buy pinyon pine
seed from Dixie National Forest in Utah,
sub-alpine fir from Kootenai N.F. in Mon-
tana, or Douglas fir seed from five dif-
ferent locations. Additionally, they sell
seed for over 30 native shrubs, and are
also on the look-out for independent
seed collectors they can buy from.
—Richard Nilsen
[Suggested by Jack Monschke]
Native Seed Foundation
Brochure free; Route W, Moyie
Springs, ID 83845; 208/267-7938.
NATIVE SHRUB SEEDS 1989 - 1990
1-9LB.10LB. & UP
ACER GLABRUM
(Rocky Mountain Maple, De-winged).. 18.00 12.00
(Vine Maple) INQUIRE
(Service Berry) ! 37.00
(Kinnikinik) 23.00
Amelanchier —
Alnifolia
Arctostaphylos
uva-ursi
(Paper Birch)
(Red Stem Ceanothus)
(Buck Brush)
(Bunch Berry Dogwood)
CORNUS STOLINEFERA
(Red Oisier Dogwood)
COTONEASTER ACUTIFOLIA
(Peking Cotoneaster)
ELAEAGNUS ANGUSTIFOLIA
(RussiamOlive) csi a. ie Vere as 6.00
22.00
All seeds listed are available in ounce lots
at one-tenth the pound price.
Fences Coming and Going ay J. BALDWIN
Fences are an integral part of many restoration, preservation, and land-stewarding
efforts; seems like you're always fencing somebody or something in or out. Moreover,
the situation tends to change, requiring fences to be removed (without damaging the
parts) about as often as built. We are talking labor-intensive at its most labor-inten-
sive. Here are a few helpful procedures and devices I’ve used to ease the pain.
Besides the equipage shown here, you'll also find use for a fence-post driver
(WER 59, p. 99), a “fencing tool’’ (combination hammer, staple-puller, nipper, wire-
cutter, and twister), small (18"’) boltcutters, a 6-foot digging bar with flat chisel at
one end and round tamper at the other, a simple carpenter belt to hold staples and
clips as you add or subtract them, extra-heavy leather gloves, toothy boots, lots to
eat and drink, and a crew of indentured servants, if available.
If you think fence-building is an onerous
task, | invite you to try fence-removing.
The wire succumbs without a whimper to
small boltcutters. But the posts . . . ah,
the posts. Three-hundred-and-fifty of
them suckers to every mile. Be they
wood or steel, they don’t wanna be up-
rooted, and will fight you every inch of
the way, screaming. Flatlanders yank ‘em
with a tractor-mounted hydraulic rig
made for the purpose. Unfortunately,
many unwanted fences festoon terrain
that will not permit tractor operation
or the land-scarring therefrom.
-I’ve taken out many miles of fence with
the simple arrangement shown here.
You ‘ll need a Handyman (EWEC p.
160) or similar big farm jack. And you'll
need about a yard of good-quality weld-
ed-link chain made of 1/4’’ steel. Make
up the chain into a loop, using a 3/8"’
bolt 3 inches long, equipped with wash-
ers to keep it from pulling through the
links. The nut will have to be jammed, or
fiended with a punch, to keep it from
leaving. Under jacking force, this chain
will grip any post by wedge action.
To yank a steel post, repeatedly loop the
chain over the post until you have an
unseemly wad that is just loose enough
to slide down to ground level. Pull a bit
of slack from the bottom of the tangle,
and slip it over the jack nose. The jack
should be nuzzling the post.
For wooden posts, drop one chain loop
over the post and let it fall to the ground.
Then twist it choke-tight, using the bolt
as a handle. Slip the bolt and a bit of
slack over the jack nose. en
Jack away, taking care not to pinch your
tree-hand between the jack and the post
as they lean together under pressure. It
may help to rock the jack a bit, using it
as a lever. The post will either come out,
usually undamaged, or it will break off
well underground (not surprising, as the
_jack can muster around 7,000 Ibs of
moxie). A crew of two can jack about
three posts every ten minutes, including
the walk. The extra person greatly speeds
the procedure by helping to steady
everything as the jacking proceeds, then
sprinting ahead to ready the next post.
Works great!
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965
~<a
One-Man Stretcher
Last-A-Lifetime
Post Hole Digger
‘Lifetime, eh? Well, it might just help you
live out your allotted years, because this
thing sinks nice round holes more easily
than any other people-powered device.
The secret is in the height or, rather, the
lack of it. It’s just right for leaning your
entire weight upon — something not
possible with conventional designs. The
handlebars encourage authoritative
twisting through hard spots and past
villainous stones. It’ll accept abuse too:
it’s all humongous thick steel, except for
rubber handgrips. A handy adjustment
gives hole diameters from 5”’ to 7”,
making the thing useful for transplanting
chores too. This is the one to get, even
for the hired hand.
‘Last-A-Lifetime
~ai
Post Hole Digger
$60 prepaid; brochure free from
Seymour Manufacturing Co., 500 N.
Broadway, Seymour, IN 47274;
800/457-1909 (812/522-2900 in IN)
Wire Gripper
e One-Man Stretcher
This cam-action gripper transforms a
come-along or even a small block-and-
tackle into a fence-tightener. A pair of
them will allow you to bring two loose
ends of a broken fence close enough to
splice. Note that it is possible to get the '
blood-blister of a lifetime if you happen
to feed this thing any part of your ana-
tomy; stand clear and wear extra-thick
barbed-wire-proof gloves. Safety gog-
gles are a good idea, too, in the event
something lets go suddenly and
goes zzzzsssshhhhh.
If you do lots of fencing, you might con-
sider a purpose-built fence tightener
such as the one made by Durbin-Durco,
Inc. It’s lighter than many come-alongs,
and is easier to manipulate —.especially
if you are a crew of one. Like the Handy-
man Jack (EWEC p. 160), this device is
a wondertul example of good old Amer-
ican Rural Hardware of a sort seldom
seen these days. It works just fine. f
Wire Gripper
Information free from Maasdam
Pow’r-Pull, Inc., P. O. Box 6130, Bur-
bank, CA 91510; 213/845-8769
One-Man Stretcher
Information free from Durbin-Durco,
Inc., RB O. Box 8396, St. Louis, MO
63132; 314/993-4750
Perma Clamp. Ratchet hook —
draws one end draws other end
of broken wire of broken wire
po a ee a Te neranameanessananeceal
HERE hasn't been a lot published yet on environmental restora-
tion, especially for the general reader. It’s a relatively new
field, and more books are bound to come. For now the two best
books, Bioengineering for Land Reclamation and Conserva-
tion and The Earth Manual, are 10 and 15 years old respec-
tively, and one of them is out of print (see p. 21 for access).
Stream Care Guide
The task: to educate stream-side property
owners and the general public about
waterways and riparian habitat in two
north-coast California counties. The so-
lution: this brief and excellent pamphlet,
done by a local private non-profit organ-
ization. —Richard Nilsen
[Suggested by Judith Goldsmith]
Before we are inundated by publishers trying to cover this subject, a suggestion
— instead of broad-scale books, how about good, locally produced pamphlets
from each bioregion. Some restoration techniques deserve a book treatment,
but much of the nitty-gritty that allows this work to succeed involves specific
local knowledge. Think of it as bioregional niche marketing, an opportunity for
inexpensive publications from public service agencies or private regional
presses. Here are three examples — of a 14-, a 60-, and a 96-page version
of this kind of effort. —Richard Nilsen
Don’t throw brush clippings or any other
material into a stream channel for high
water to “carry away’. The brush may
create an unwanted debris jam downstream
on your neighbor’s property. Streams are
not garbage dumps!
Natural debris in the creek is needed for
food and shelter for fish and wildlife. If
flooding and bank erosion are not a
problem, please leave the stream alone.
‘’Cleaning’’ the stream usually hurts
rather than helps fish and wildlife.
(Right) An abundant variety of native plants
along a stream creates good riparian habitat.
David J. Cross
Stream Care Guide
Nancy Reichard, 1988; 14 pp.
$1 postpaid from Natural Resources
Division/Redwood Community Action
Agency, 904 G Street, Eureka, CA
95501; 707/445-0881.
Groundwork vantage; but in some cases when an open
channel is needed to carry stormflows,
Too much of coastal California has been Hee con Be RnUiccnee
washing into the sea for a good chunk
of this century. What logging didn’t set
loose the cows did. This handsome hana- INSERT SPRIG,
book is the product of one of America’s WITH up
more than 3,000 resource conservation VOINTING UP
districts. With a locally elected board, |
but no power to make or enforce laws,
RCDs function as the glue between gov-
ernmental bureaucracies and private
landowners in cooperative efforts to con-
serve soil and water. Superb line draw- INSERT 15-80%
ings of techniques and a succinct text OF TOTAL Groundwork
make this pamphlet one to. emulate. SPRG LENGTH Liza Prunuske, 1987; 60 pp.
—Richard Nilsen INTO SOIL $1.25 postpaid from
THKIM OFF BRANCHES
® Marin County Resource
Conservation District, P. O.
Box 219, Point Reyes Station,
CA 94956; 415/663-1231.
Willows are an effective and inexpensive
way to armor active headcuts and gully
banks.
Be sure to plant the willows right-side up.
One almost foolproof method is to point
the planting end of the sprig with an axe CUT. END TO A POINT FOK
_ right after it is cut from the tree. EASIER. INSTALLATION
Willows spread easily — usually an ad- Willow sprig installation.
82 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
—_---~
: Stream
| and little details. There is plenty of infor-
Enhancement Guide
Salmon habitat restoration is occurring
around the entire Pacific Rim. This teach-
ing manual from British Columbia’s Sal-
monid Enhancement Program is ten years
old and out of print, but the information
it contains has a much wider audience
than just one Canadian province. Aimed
at both the public and government fish-
eries workers, it has some of the best
before-and-after photos of any restora-
tion booklet I’ve seen. At heart it is a
manual of stream design, aimed at de-
monstrating solutions to salmon/human
cohabitation. It deserves reissue as a
watershed classic. | —Richard Nilsen
Stream Enhancement
Guide
Ministry of Environment, British Col-
umbia, Canada, 1980; 96 pp.
Out of print.
Desiroble— Falling water enters the
pool of nearly a 90° angle. A
standing wove lies close fo the
waterfall, good position for fish
to use /fs upward thrust in leaping.
Plunge-pool depth is 1.25 times
the distonce (h).
Undesirable— Pool depth less. Standing
wave formed too far from the ledge
to be useful fo leaping fish.
if ig
Attracting luminate a foot path. If the light is placed
. Backyard Wildlife * ‘near a border between a garden or rock-
ery and a lawn area, toads will have some
cover while waiting for their meal to arrive.
This Canadian book, useful anywhere,
gives careful consideration to little critters
mation on birds and small animals, but
nice coverage of lizards and insects too.
And for all, there are excellent diagrams
of building housing and feeding stations.
(For a video on backyard wildlife, see
pAiai.) —Richard Nilsen
©
Two ideas for improving backyards for
toads are providing daytime retreats and
hiding places, and a low power light
source to attract night insects. Toad holes
can be constructed in many imaginative
ways, with soft sandy soil at the bottom
being the key... .
Attracting Backyard
Wildlife
Bill Merilees, 1989; 159 pp.
$1 0.95 ($13.95 postpaid) from
Voyageur Press, 123 N. 2nd Street,
Stillwater, MN 55082; 612/430-2210
(or Whole Earth Access).
ROCKERY OR.
ROCK WALL.
Toad lights may be a light designed to il-
ROCK ROOF TO PREVENT
-BURROW FROM COLLAPSING
CAVITY.
J
a
Sees! FES
CONCRETE DRAIN
PIPE;
SOFT SAND IN
BOTTOM OF CAVITY.
Concrete rectangular
culvert with offset baffles
bolted to the floor. The
baffles were made of
treated timber. Without
them water velocities
would be too high and
the depth too shallow
during fish migration.
Wildlife Habitat
Enhancement Council
Corporations control lots of land, and
often have little idea what’s happening
on it (think of the miles of power-line
right-of-ways stretching across the land-
scape). This two-year-old organization is
a cooperative venture between some
very large U.S. corporations and some
very mainline conservation groups. The
goals appear to be restoring landholdings
to environmental usefulness, making the
public happy, and polishing tarnished
images a bit. let’s see, that’s win, win,
win. If you live next to some BIG neigh-
bors, these folks might be able to help
you meet them. —Richard Nilsen
Wildlife Habitat
Enhancement Council
Membership $1 00.
1010 Wayne Avenue/Suite 210, Silver
Spring, MD 20910; 301/588-8994.
@
Case Study: Delaware, Maryland and
Virginia
Company: Delmarva Power & Light,
Vienna Power Plant
Habitat: The Nanticoke River, a
Chesapeake Bay tributary.
Project: Delmarva Power constructed a
$50,000 brooding pond on its Vienna Power
Plant grounds to help save the dwindling
striped bass population in the Chesapeake
Bay and its tributaries. Since 1985, Delmar-
va Power has released more than 40,000
striped bass fingerlings or rockfish into the
Nanticoke River in Maryland. |
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 83
NOT PRIVY TO MY THOUGHTS?
Tell it to the shit of mice and voles
which contains fungus from truffles they ate
which contains microorganisms
without which |
the colossal Douglas Firs
wouldn't be able to take in and keep
more water in their roothairs |
in the dry seasons |
without which they'd die. | |
No Avenue of Giants without miceshit! |
No stupendous treetrunk longevities and heights
without turds,
little turds of shy
scurrying pink-toed and white-whiskered
pink-nosed mousies.
Ah, weak and cowering timorous beastie, .
what awe-inspiring power
is in thy feces!
ALL THE BREATHS
All the breaths all the people
who ever lived or are alive now
breathe in their life put together
could fit in a space
as big as
Lake Michigan,
Whereas an ant'’s total breaths in its life
would fill a space
the size of
your body,
And a human breathes
a space of air in its life
the size of
the Empire State Building,
And a Blue Whale breathes a volume
so large in its life
you could go backpacking in it
for a month
and see no one.
ATHEIST CONCHES
Are there conches that don't believe
after they die they echo the sea?
That go to great lengths to prove to other conches
the foolishness of believing after they die
they will echo the sea.
Spend their whole lives writing books
about how there is no air or beach,
only the sea,
and when you die that’s it,
there's no echo.
RIVER ANATOMY
The mouth of the river
is really the anus of the river
For the river starts on the mountaintop
so the mountaintop is the mouth of the river,
or the cloud is the mouth of the river.
Where the river empties into the sea
is the anus of the river
not the mouth of the river,
Unless the river is vomiting into the sea.
But the anus of the river
is really the penis of the river,
because what empties into the sea
is liquid not solid.
So the mouth of the river
is the penis of the river,
the vulva of the river.
Parts of Antler’s poem Factory first appeared in CoEvolution Quarterly a decade ago. From bis home in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, be
writes: ‘‘Last fall (‘88) I read with poets on tour from China at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I remember one of the
Chinese poets remarking that in America you can say anything you want and nobody listens, whereas in China you can't say anything
you want and everybody listens.’’
|
. |
These poems are from a work in progress. Antler’s most recent book of poetry is Last Words. _ —Richard Nilsen
84 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
CAMPFIRE TALK
Birds don’t need opinions
because they have pinions.
What is the opinion of the pinon pine
on whether Christianity is
for or against homosexuality?
A flower doesn’t need a savior
to be able to bloom.
A waterfall doesn’t need a guru
in order to gush.
A caterpillar doesn’t need a Bible
to become a butterfly.
A lake doesn’t need a Ph.D.
to become a cloud.
A rainbow doesn't need a fresh coat of paint
every year.
Worms don't need to study existentialism
to exist.
Mountaintops don't need to kneel
and ask forgiveness for their sins.
Capitalism and Communism mean nothing
to every tree that alchemizes light.
No whale will ever know who Christ is.
No chipmunk will ever follow Buddha.
No eagle gives a shit about Mohammed.
No grizzly will ever consult a priest.
_No seagull will ever become a Mormon.
No dolphin has to learn computers
if it wants to get along
in the modern world.
No sparrow needs insurance.
No gorilla needs a God.
MARIJUANA SAVED MY LIFE
Heard from my grandmother
An old Bible in her attic told
_ In the part reserved for family histories
How one of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower
John Holland, a 13-year-old boy
Who was swept overboard at night in a storm
Someone threw a rope over the side into the dark
and miraculously he caught it
and was hauled back in,
‘‘And if he hadn't caught that rope,
you wouldn't be here now.’’
Thirty years later I realize
Way back then rope was hemp
and so: _
Marijuana saved my life!
PALEOLITHIC CONSCIOUSNESS
ORBITED BY TVs
How close the closest TV to me?
My head seen from above
and then x-ray vision over
roofs of Milwaukee
showing turned-on TVs
with people glued to them —
Thousands and thousands in a one-mile radius from my head,
dozens of channels, dozens of voices and plots,
endless commercials, endless actors
and actresses in costumes gesticulating,
endless images flashing on gazers’ eyes,
While in the center — my poet head,
my meditating poetry brain
in silence at midnight
in candlelight in my attic
listening
to the foghorn and the rain... .
TODAY'S POET
Today's poet does more work in a day
than the entire slave population
of America before the Civil War
could do in a year!
Today's poet works harder in an hour
than all the wagontrains of pioneers struggling
across prairies, deserts, mountains
East to West!
Today's poet works with more energy per minute
than all the oar-pulls of all the galleyslaves
in the history of biremes, triremes,
quadriremes, quinqueremes!
Today’s poet works more in a second
than all the constructionworkers worked
to erect every skyscraper on Earth!
Today's poet works more in a nanosecond
than all the factoryworkers worked
in all the factories that existed |
or exist since Industrial Revolution!
Today’s bard gets a year-long vacation every second,
a century-long vacation every minute,
a millenium-long vacation every hour,
a Geologic-Age long vacation every day,
a Big-Bang long vacation every year!
Today's bard gets paid so much just for dreaming,
he can retire in comfort for his whole life
before he even wakes up
or gets out of bed! @
a ae
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 85
A decade ago in CoEvolution Quarterly, we published an article entitled ‘‘The Subtlest of Catastrophes — Erosion vs.
Reforestation at Auroville.’’ It described a group of westerners who had started an intentional community in Tamil Nadu
(southern India). They were battling severe erosion brought on by generations of subsistence agriculture. The restoration
work described there continues, and what has emerged in addition to new forests is a successful model of First World/
Third World partnership. Alan Lithman is a twenty-year resident of Auroville who last year arranged for India’s first
trilateral (US-USSR-India) exchange program at Auroville. For information, write: Auroville International USA, P. O.
Box 162489, Sacramento, CA 95816.
A twenty-year-
old project that’s
still growing
BY ALAN LITHMAN
Monsoon rains on a denuded landscape produce severe
gully erosion around Auroville.
86 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
—Richard Nilsen
REVISITING AUROVILLE
E WERE dragging our bicycles across
the barren fields, avoiding the sharp
stubble, all that was left by the migrant
beat down upon this wretched piece of
earth, bleaching it bone white or a brittle terra-cotta. A
once-living earth dying back into a moon. We reached
the edge of a canyon whose fingers gouged through the
landscape. My friend pointed across the ravine to the bar-
ren plateau beyond, where a few palmyra trees shimmered
like phantoms in the heat waves. ‘‘There it is,’ he said.
‘“Auroville.’’ I looked and saw nothing but a vacant land-
scape that slid into the Bay of Bengal. How could I
possibly live there? How could anyone?
That was in 1969. Today, two million trees later, standing
at that same rim of the canyon, forests camouflage the
horizon and the habitations, schools and workplaces
where some 700 men, women and children from more
than 25 nations are learning to live a sustainable future
together.
Transplanting a growing microcosm of Westerners, plus
Indians from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, onto
a plateau in rural southern India (already inhabited by
some 20,000 Tamils in a dozen villages) was a unique ex-
periment. In the past, such a venture was called colon-
ialism. How was Auroville, with its ideals and dreams of
the late sixties, to take root in such a reality without (well-
intentioned or otherwise) taking it over?
That is a question we are still dealing with. When you
look at the bare earth, it does not lie. There is simply
nothing more to take. If anything at all is to grow on this
plateau, we must put everything back: the soil, the water,
the life. Everything — the evolutionary capital that a cen-
tury of human ignorance and greed squandered. There
comes a moment when matter itself, despite our mach-
inations and abstractions, our rhetoric and polemics,
makes its point. When the earth speaks. And in this sense,
we have all been colonialists on this planet. At Auroville,
there was simply no buffer with which to fool ourselves.
It was clear what had to be done, and there was no one
else to do it for us. We. were humanity coming home to
repay a terrestrial debt from the West to the East, a kar-
ma that we owed to the Earth.
herds of cows and goats. A merciless sun -
aa
_
So we began. A growing core of Aurovillians — ‘‘green-
workers,’’ we later called ourselves — fanning out across
a landscape, challenging its stark emptiness with crowbars
and mattocks. An absurd image, laughable even to the
Tamil villager who could not fathom the sense or ulterior
motive for such a ritual in this utter wasteland. With our
crowbars, we broke through the exposed clay crust whose
topsoil had long ago washed away. And with our crude
handshovels, mumptis, we dug pits in the dense red clay.
Into this sterile ground whose surface we could barely
scratch, we began to return what had been taken away.
We carted compost and topsoil to fill the pits, and haul-
ed barrels of water by bullock cart to the seedlings we
planted.
Who could imagine in those first impossible days what
would grow in the years and decades to come? We cer-
tainly knew no more what we were about than the villager
who eyed us curiously from his field, as if we had just
landed from another planet. But we persisted, quick to
learn from our discoveries and failures, encouraged by
nature's response to those first efforts, inspired by her
resilience and the amazing speed of the regenerative ca-
pacities of the tropics.
As we persisted, certain things became obvious, such as
initiating the reforestation with hardy varieties of indi-
genous, drought-resistant trees and scrub jungle to temper
the environment before introducing slower-growing stands
that would have withered in the open sun; providing trees
with natural fencing or watchmen to protect them from
the foragings of cows and goats or the sharp kutti of the
villager in search of firewood; planting just before the
monsoon, to allow the seedlings a two-month soaking to
establish themselves; and raising the earth in a circular
mound around each pit, then mulching it to retain the
moisture.
Quick-fix aid programs generally overlook these essen-
tials and the follow-up care necessary to assure signifi-
cant, healthy survival. It is painful to see thousands of
seedlings stuck in a field, watered once and abandoned.
The contractor has fulfilled his obligation, signed the
paper satisfying the donor agency that so many thousand
trees were planted. The fact that none survived is not
mentioned at the Board Meeting.
To support the continuing growth of Auroville’s trees, an
(Above left) A view of the plateau from a farmhouse
window in 1976. (Above right) The same view in 1986
shows a well-established forest of indigenous trees.
Don Ryan
A square hole is dug with a mumpti.
Cube shape forces
roots into corners >>
and keeps them a az
from growing MES
fu \N Xe Y
in circles. SO s-
q
| Mi ua wet
¢
A mounded earth s ete
bund retains Be inch ta a
moisture.
Seedling is mulched to retain moisture
during dry season.
A horseshoe-shaped
bund is used to
collect run-off from
sloping ground.
: Jade
SP i ie
Saves < i“
Tew
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 87
(Right) Tall trees provide shade for
the nursery, which propagates indi-
genous varieties plus endangered spe-
cies from throughout India and South-
east Asia. (Below) Tending plants on
a raised earth bund. Cactus is used as
natural fencing to keep livestock away
from young trees.
entire infrastructure emerged. Nur-
series sprang up to provide the seed-
lings and recultivate endangered spe- .
cies. Large-scale composting areas
were developed to revitalize the de-
pleted soil. Extensive networks of
check dams in canyons and miles of
earthmound grids (bunds) around
fields were devised to retain the de-
luge of monsoon rain that would
otherwise sheet-flood across the pla-
teau, sweeping off tons of precious
topsoil with it to the sea. Water sys-
tems, powered primarily by scores
of windmills designed and built in
Auroville, were situated at strategic
locations throughout the young plan-
tations to provide gravity-feed pump-
ing stations for the bullock carts that
still must haul water to the trees. Greenwork meetings
became a regular planning exercise in which fieldworkers
could share experience, research and strategies, as well
as reach out beyond Auroville to other regions of India.
It became more and more apparent that Auroville, with
its present patchwork of 2,200 acres spread out over a
larger area of 12,000 acres, could not realize its true poten-
tial in isolation, either environmentally or on any other
level. After all, what was the purpose of Auroville? To
become an exclusive patch of green in a parched corner
of India on a planet whose forests are being felled at the
rate of a hundred acres a minute? To be an eco-elite, add-
ing twenty minutes worth of earthtrees while the villager
next door cuts the sole remaining acacia in his field for
firewood? Each season that same villager, whitened with
the dust of the DDT he threw by hand into his overwork-
ed field, would squeeze a little less out of that plot of
earth, and the water table of the entire region would con-
tinue to fall.
For Auroville, an effective change required a comprehen-
sive and cooperative action plan for the plateau as a whole.
To check the monsoon’s fury as it plunders the slope,
turning the rutted tracks of bullock carts into ravines, all
of the fields must be protected. Self-interest no longer
stops at the boundary marker, as we are beginning to
learn in global terms as well.
88 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Yet with villagers for whom the land
literally means survival, abstract en-
vironmental arguments do not feed
people. Turning around the momen-
tum of such self-destructive patterns
requires a different form of com-
munication: action, demonstration,
patience and time.
After two decades and two million
trees, something does translate; sim-
ple things have become tangible.
There is a change in the microclimate, —
the soil fertility, the watershed. Per-
haps a well in the village that had
gone dry suddenly has water again.
Why?
Slowly, villagers are beginning to
assimilate the impact of Auroville’s
action and to draw their own conclusions. Raised earth
grids are appearing around their fields along with
checkdams in the canyons that threaten them. Trees are
replacing some field crops. In response, Auroville provides
whatever support and assistance it can — training pro-
grams, techniques, seedlings, even joint proposals for
funds to restore the balance of this piece of earth we share.
The circle continues to widen as Auroville initiates out-
reach programs in other parts of India, pressing beyond
state borders toward a true First World-Third World part-
nership.
Looking back across the threshold of that canyon I crossed
twenty years ago, I see a handful of naive humanity that
dared to begin this adventure with crowbars and hand-
shovels. And I see what is possible when we stand our
ground, our common ground. I see forests and grasslands
filled with masses of flowers and the native birds and
wildlife that had long ago disappeared from this part of
the planet. I see what can be done from the barest begin-
nings and under the most impossible conditions, with
hardly any means or resources. Not by calculating, or
waiting for the opportune moment, or the big money, or
for a conference to confirm what must be done. I see what
can be done by the power of simply doing it. And as |
turn toward the starkly contrasting landscape behind
me, I see all that is yet to be done. m
Australia Turns
An Environmental
Corner
BY RICHARD NILSEN
Australia made history in 1989 when
Prime Minister Hawke faced up to his
nation’s environmental deterioration
and, in a statement titled Our Coun-
try, Our Future, called for a national
policy that includes restoration. It’s
the kind of high-profile pronounce-
ment that many people in the U.S.
have long wanted. Consider it a bold
admission and a promising first step,
while huge issues remain undecided,
like the fate of Australian forests, and
whether to allow mining inside na-
tional parks. It’s hard to know from
this distance what is real and what is
rhetoric, but the problems Australia
_ faces are not in dispute.
The continent’s isolation made what
has happened all the more severe.
The Aborigines brought the dingo
with them into this marsupial para-
dise about 30,000 years ago, but that
was as nothing compared to the Euro-
pean settlement just 200 years ago.
Sheep and cattle, yes, but also rats,
cats, rabbits and foxes. Not to men- |
tion escaped exotic plants since then,
Victorian Salinity Program
like a Central American legume call-
ed prickly mimosa that’s overrunning
the bush of North Australia, or South
African capeweed, which has infested
areas equivalent in size to Arizona
and New Mexico.
One of the prime minister’s proposals
is to plant one billion trees by the year
2000, of which many will be going in-
to the Murray-Darling Basin, where
problems with soil salts have become
critical. This drainage has half of
Australia’s sheep and croplands, and
provides half of South Australia's
water. Farmers cut the native forests
Case Studies in
Environmental Hope
Yes, the postage does cost more than
- the book, but this “‘accentuate the posi-
tive’’ collection of eighteen case studies
in environmental progress from Western
Australia is the kind of effort that every
bio-region on the planet should be pub-
lishing. Buy one and use it as a model.
—Richard Nilsen
[Suggested by Stephen Hodgkin]
Case Studies in
Environmental Hope
Peter Newman, Simon Neville,
and Louise Duxbury, Editors
$6* ($13.50 postpaid) from E.P.A.
Support Services, 2nd Floor, 1 Mount °
Street, Perth, WA 6000, Australia.
* Prices quoted are in Australian
dollars. The cheapest way to buy this
book is to get Australian currency at
an exchange and send cash: a bank
check adds a lot to the cost.
Rolly Carrol of Westralian Sands, and his
tree tubes.
Following sandmining, the deep sands are
left in an almost unconsolidated form, and
are very difficult to rehabilitate. Rolly
reasoned that if a plant had very deep
Water samples are collected by
students during Saltwatch week, from
a groundwater bore in the Mallee in
the northwest of Victoria.
to plant crops, and this upset a deli-
cate hydrological balance. The salt-
bearing soils, underlain by an imper-
meable layer of clay, waterlogged, and
the soluble salts rose to the surface,
where they are ruining farmland and
poisoning rivers. Lowering the water
table is the name of the game now,
hence the tree-planting. .
Some of the tactics for raising public
consciousness are worth noting by
residents of the western U.S. facing
similar problems. The official Salini-
ty Program in Victoria dumped seven
tons of salt — the amount entering
the Murray River every three minutes
— ina Melbourne city square. There's
a Saltwatch program with stickers
that say ‘‘Involve Me and I'll Under-
stand’’; there's a newsletter called Salt
Force News. There are also thousands
of citizens collecting water samples
for a database, some from borehole
wells that keep tabs on the water table
in public places like shopping-center
parking lots and schools. From these
wells emerge color-coded rods attach-
ed to floats. If the water table rises,
the rod shows red, and everyone gets
the message. @
roots and very few leaves, it would stand
a greater chance of survival than normal
seedling stock. He developed a method
using split PVC tubing, and now produces
plants which can be planted all year
round, even in paspalum or kikuyu
grasses, and have a very good chance of
out-competing the weeds and flourishing.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 89
Leningrad Grapples With A Crisis In Water Quality
BY PETER RIGGS
te Se
Ne oer Are Sn
NDREI SHIFTED INTO low gear
s the heavy truck climbed the steep
grade to the causeway. ‘‘They’ll never
stop building this dam, you know,”’
he said, shouting over the roar of
the diesel engine. ‘‘They’ll keep building it right up
to the day they begin tearing it down.’’ The truck
reached the gravel road at the top of the dam. To the
left, the cranes and shipyards of Leningrad’s harbor
were plainly visible under a slate-grey sky. Beyond
the dam’s perimeter lay only the Bay of Finland, the
easternmost finger of the Baltic Sea. ‘‘All this time
building,’ Andrei continued, ‘‘and still nobody
knows for sure whether the good in this project will
outweigh the bad. But I'll tell you this — every
summer, when my boys and I go swimming, we have
to go farther and farther away from this causeway,
because the beaches near it aren’t clean anymore.”
Sergei Tsvetkov
At daybreak here in the old Czarist capital, sleepy-eyed
women in housecoats and felt boots haul tin buckets to
curbside and join a long queue, anxiously awaiting deliv-
ery of yet another scarce commodity — drinking water.
Fresh water must be trucked into the city, as the oily-
brown liquid which flows through Leningrad’s taps is
‘categorically not recommended for human consump-
tion.”
The beauty of Leningrad — proudly called ‘‘Peter’’ by the
city’s five million residents — is also its curse. Czar Peter
the Great constructed his capital far from Moscow so that
it could serve as a ‘‘window on Europe, ’ and even today,
Leningrad retains a strong European flavor. But the deli-
cate inlay of canals and watercourses also testifies to the
fact that Leningrad is built on an estuary — an environ-
ment extraordinarily susceptible to ecological disruption.
Water pollution in Leningrad, in the words of one activist,
‘is at catastrophic levels; people have no idea how close
we are to a breakdown of the entire ecosystem.’ The Neva
River and its tributaries have been badly damaged by in-
dustrial wastes, agricultural runoff, and the installation
Soviet environmental problems are just beginning to emerge into public view on both sides of what used to be called the Iron Curtain.
The Eastern Bloc is deservedly preoccupied with political restoration. Will the environmental variety be far behind? The plot of this
Russian tale is familiar the world over: citizen activists versus the bungling bureaucrats and their big dam. One good effect of the en-
vironmental crisis is that it melts national and ideological boundaries. While politicians on all sides scramble to keep up, history is
being made by people. ;
Peter Riggs wrote ‘‘Baltic Rocks’’ in our last issue, a report on revolutionary rock and roll. He is. Thomas J. Watson Fellow who
currently lives in Indonesia.
90 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
—Richard Nilsen
‘je ha
(Left) A portion of the
dam being constructed by
the USSR across the Bay
of Finland. Designed to
protect Leningrad from
tidal flooding, it will also
interrupt the heavily pol-
luted Neva River’s dis-
charge into the Baltic Sea.
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of new hydrostations which strip the waters of their self-
purifying capabilities; effluents from the numerous paper
mills and chemical plants at nearby Lake Ladoga have
resulted in outbreaks of disease from water-borne bacteria;
and the shallow marine ecosystem of the Bay of Finland,
unable to assimilate Leningrad’s untreated wastes, is
being rapidly degraded.
A dam now being constructed in the delta to protect Len-
ingrad from tidal flooding will greatly exacerbate the
problems. These ‘‘protective structures’’ would sever the
link between the Neva River and the Bay of Finland,
transforming the mouth of the Neva into ‘‘a cesspool of
unpurified sewage,’ according to the activist.
The ‘“‘protective structures’’ will stretch twenty-five
kilometers across the bay, between the beachfront suburbs
of Lisij Nos (‘‘Foxnose’’) and Lomonosov. The dam is now
a little more than half-finished; construction costs were
underestimated, and the timetable for its completion was
completely unrealistic. Although in 1976 the all-union
Council of Ministers approved a set of measures calling
for the installation of treatment facilities at 100 percent
of Leningrad'’s wastewater outlets by 1985, and noted at
that time that it would be necessary to implement this
clean-up before the dam could be completed, the number
of untreated wastewater outlets actually increased in the
decade up to the 1985 deadline, and funds earmarked for
the smaller-scale water treatment programs were diverted
_to the dam.
The structures are a colossal monument to ‘‘gigantoma-
+ Lemboloyskog 9 <i
ae
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fy
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ove
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AMOROZOVAD
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“SI : c
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nia’ — a disease not unique to but certainly prevalent in
the Soviet Union's production ministries, powerful bu-
reaucracies well-accustomed to writing their own meal
tickets. The dam itself is built to withstand a flood likely
to occur only once in ten thousand years. Scientists have
calculated that a meteorite crashing on Leningrad’s fa-
mous Nevsky Prospekt is equally likely.
The dam is not the first scheme designed to protect Len-
ingrad from floods, however. In the early post-war period,
plans were drawn up to sink an atomic bomb in the bay
near Sosnovij Bor ("'Pine Woods’’); in case of flood, went
the reasoning, the bomb could be detonated and the ex-
tra water would flood into the crater resulting from the
explosion. When asked about the resulting fallout, a min-
istry spokesman was said to have responded, *‘What do
you think is better — to drown, or to brave the slow ef-
fects of radiation, which will gradually disappear?’’ One
Leningrad activist jokes that, instead, residents of ‘‘Peter’’
have the worst of both worlds: “‘Because of the dam, we
will drown slowly in our own shit, which is gradually
accumulating.’
HE SOVIET UNION, which for many years insisted
that pollution was a phenomenon found only in capitalist
societies, has finally acknowledged the extent and scope
of its environmental problems. Bureaucracy, the over-
riding importance of production-plan fulfillment, and
Soviet citizens’ ingrained pessimism towards the possibi-
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 9 f
lity of change has thus far hampered the formation of
successful responses to such problems.
Now, however, the prevailing climate of glasnost coup-
led with the growing political sophistication of grassroots
organizers throughout the Soviet Union has given rise to
a powerful Soviet environmental movement with both a
local and a global focus. Because of its own precarious
ecological situation and its well-established contacts with
events and movements around the world, Leningrad has
the best-developed environmental movement of any city
in the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union's ecology movement has come of age
at a time of increased awareness of the global nature of
environmental problems and easier transborder com-
munication. Until glasnost, environmental problems in
the Soviet Union were seen as the concern of specialists
only; now unofficial environmental groups in cities like
Leningrad have ended the state monopoly on environ-
mental information by learning to use computer links and
databases to keep abreast of scientific and political devel-
opments on the local and international level.
Other tactics employed by independent environmental
groups in Leningrad will also be familiar to western ac-
tivists. Last year the group Epicentre organized a three-
day ‘‘teach-in’’ about Leningrad’s water system; members
of the group Adelaida have conducted a continuous sig-
nature campaign calling for a halt to dam construction;
and members of the Ecological Committee of the Lenin-
grad Writers Union have compiled a number of scientific
studies which warn of the grave threat to public health
posed by unchecked pollution of the Ladoga-Neva drain-
age basin.
Sergei Tsvetkov, chairman of the Ecological Committee,
remarks that ‘We now have a vigorous group of experts
helping us sift through the great quantities of data per-
taining to the dam project, as well as epidemiological
studies from Lake Ladoga. There are several ministries
with a powerful interest in seeing the dam built; they
employ scientists to make studies showing that the neg-
ative environmental impact will be minimal. We too have
enlisted the support of about one hundred scientists from
various fields; in this way we can use facts to counter the
statements from the production-oriented ministries, which
is crucial.’’
Links with scientists and grassroots groups abroad have
already yielded some tangible results for Leningrad acti-
vists. As scientists Boris Gusakov and Nina Petrova began
to wade through epidemiological studies from Lake La-
doga in an effort to understand the anthropomorphic
changes taking place in this lake, data sets from abroad.
saved them from unnecessarily duplicating numerous hy-
drological and biological studies. Much of this research
had been carried out at Lake Erie — from the first ‘‘hey-
day’’ of American environmentalism, when ecology be-
came a critical issue because of the degradation of the
Great Lakes.
Eventually Gusakov and Petrova found the parallels so
striking that they decided to publish a book. The Great
92 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Lakes Face to Face compares the Erie-Ontario system with
that of Ladoga and Onega, the two large lakes whose
waters flow through Leningrad into the Bay of Finland.
There are literally hundreds of polluting industries located
at Ladoga; the Syakij paper-cellulose plant alone
discharges more than seventy million cubic meters of
wastewater into the lake. The book explores the similari-
ties of the ecosystems, the patterns of human use of the
lakes’ resources, and the clean-up projects initiated in
both the United States and the Soviet Union. The authors
conclude with a call for greater interawareness: ‘‘Infor-
mation obtained by scientists must be translated; infor-
mation must give shape to practical recommendations and
social-economic valuation. All people from both con-
tinents must safeguard the unique resources of the North
American Great Lakes — and of our own, great lakes.’’
Wi. RECENTLY, chairman Yuri Sevenard and
other members of the interministerial committee oversee-
ing construction of the dam were able to suppress pub-
lication of information which questioned their findings.
Now that environmental activists have access to a wider
variety of data and are able to publish relevant articles
in the official press, they are less easily cowed. But no
less than anywhere else in the Soviet Union, glasnost in
Leningrad is proceeding by fits and starts.
‘We feel that the TV and radio people are just playing ©
with us; they are not willing to engage in a serious dis-
cussion,’’ says Sergei Tsvetkov. ‘‘The city and regional
authorities use the press to give the impression that there
are no conflicts, that because we've got glasnost everything
will work out just fine.’’ Still, most bureaucrats are find-
ing that the glare of publicity is not always to their liking;
in many cases, they have resorted to more familiar strong-
arm tactics in order to get their way. |
For example, producers of the Leningrad television pro-
gram ‘‘Public Opinion’’ planned to broadcast live a ‘‘ci-
tizens’ discussion’’ which they hoped would ‘‘create a
milieu hospitable to the activization of new attitudes.’’
Instead, angry crowds, demanding a complete accoun-
ting of the environmental effects of the dam project and
the pollution of Lake Ladoga, converged on the site of
the discussion; during the program attention was repeat-
edly diverted away from sensitive issues. Noted Mercury,
the newsletter of Leningrad’s ecology movement: ‘‘Tele-
vision failed to keep its promises.”’
TASS felt obligated to respond. Their comment: ‘‘As is
always the case surrounding tough questions, the social
mood underwent some change. . . . In previous years
only ‘wholehearted, unanimous support’ was noted,
when what was really needed was the firm courage of
citizens who would dare to come forward and speak
against the project. Now it is easier to confess one’s op-
position to the project, and it takes a brave man to speak
in support of this important undertaking.’ Environmen-
tal writer Oleg Petrichenko replied bitterly, ‘‘If formerly
eb Ala al,
Sergei Tsvetkov
Sergei Tsvetkov taking water samples from the Bay of Finland,
within the confines of the dam. Water quality and temperature
data are essential for calculating impacts like algal bloom vectors.
This information is being used to.counter the claims made by the
dam-building ministries. Both East and West, those who control
the data often will influence the final outcome.
‘critics’ were threatened with the straitjacket for criminal
insanity, now they're given the dunce cap as seekers of
cheap popularity. The dunce cap is a little easier to wear,
but it gives you about the same prestige.’’
A “‘public meeting”’ held on January 23, 1989, in the A.
M. Gorky House of Culture, provides another example
of bureaucratic railroading. On the agenda was the pro-
posal for joint-venture construction of a Russian-style
amusement park at the Lisij Nos end of the tidal dam.
Experts gave their opinions, and bureaucrats gushed
about the unalloyed good that such a ‘‘gigantic entertain-
ment complex’’ would bring to the people of Leningrad.
When, however, opponents of the plan rose to speak, the
moderator switched off the public-address system and
declared the meeting adjourned. This led to a signature-
writing campaign, and the opposition group was able to
Perestroika And
The Rule Of Law
One pervasive aspect of perestroika that has
largely escaped Western attention — in part
because it is only manifested through other
issues — is the idea of the ‘‘Rule of Law.’ As
the Soviet Union moves slowly towards a
“‘civil’’ society — that is, one with a codified
system of rights and responsibilities, where
decisions reflect protocol rather than just the
whims of the powerful personalities involved
— the idea of accountability under the rule of
law has been extended beyond just budgetary
matters. Political scores are no longer to be
settled in extra-institutional ways; those in-
volved in the Tbilisi massacre, for example, are
said to be ‘‘brought to account under the rule
of law.’ In the environmental realm, firms and
ministries for the first time must be prepared
to thoroughly justify not only their use of par-
ticular natural resources but also the produc-
tive processes employed. No longer is produc-
tion in and of itself hailed as an unassailable
good.
This is of great significance for environmental
activists in the Soviet Union. One of the most
aggravating difficulties they have faced is that
on paper the Soviet Union has one of the most
stringent and comprehensive systems of pol-
lution regulation of any country in the world.
The existence of this legal framework for the
protection of nature thus served to defuse ef-
fective criticism of policy-makers. But there
were no provisions for enforcement. The legal
framework was viewed by plant managers as
a set of guidelines with which to voluntarily
comply — up to the point where some provi-
sion or another hampered production norms.
Fines levied against a firm for repeated trans-
gressions were purely token — rarely more
than 300 roubles. —Peter Riggs
publish its letter in the progressive journal Ogonyok, to
the great embarrassment of those bureaucrats involved.
Now it is not clear whether construction of the amuse-
ment park will be approved or not.
In the face of such bureaucratic inertia, Leningrad’s inde-
pendent environmental groups have proven to be superb
grassroots organizers, able to turn out support at critical
times on a number of key issues. They have consistently
outflanked state efforts to co-opt their activities. While
Communist Party officials have constantly lamented the
unwillingness of independent groups to link their efforts
with those of official organizations, grassroots organizers
point out that ‘‘people have a bad attitude towards state-
sponsored groups. As far as we're concerned, the official
Nature Protection Organization is just for show. It is under
the thumb of the production ministries; it has given ap-
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 93
ee I ee a ee ee a ee ee tee eee
proval to all kinds of environmentally destructive ventures,
including the dam project.’’ The Party has been put in
the paradoxical position of having to relearn grassroots
organizing techniques in order to drum up support for
the Nature Protection Organization. Most feel the effort
to be too little, too late.
The Soviet Council of Ministers’ January 1988 resolution
on the environment, which called for the establishment
of a State Committee for Environmental Protection, has
been greeted with similar skepticism. ‘It’s a Moscow-
based initiative, and so far the efforts of this committee
have been little more than window-dressing. We face a
unique set of circumstances here, and only we ourselves
will be able to effect change,’ commented a member of
Delta, the grassroots organization fighting construction
of the dam.
Delta took the initiative last spring in organizing a con-
ference on the health of the Baltic Sea, which was attend-
ed by environmentalists from the three Baltic Republics,
as well as representatives from Finland and Sweden. Clos-
ed beaches in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the sum-
mer of 1989 contributed to the feeling of malaise towards
Moscow’s rule, and ‘‘green’’ ecological programs are an
important part of the independence movements in these
republics.
Cpe 'S REFORM program has brought
forth bold new initiatives and bitter backlashes. Behind
the various calls for greater autonomy, for political free-
doms and economic restructuring, is a question so basic
that it is rarely verbalized: how many long-buried but still
painful issues must be dredged up from the first seventy
years of the Soviet Union's history before we can truly
move forward? To what extent must past wrongs be re-
dressed?
This is a question of crucial importance in the field of
ecology as well, because it asks whether projects approv-
ed in Brezhnev’s time — the ‘‘period of stagnation’’ —
should be cancelled, at the loss of hundreds of millions
of roubles in sunk costs. It is one thing to forbid construc-
tion of new nuclear power plants in the Ukraine, or new
pulp mills at Ladoga; it is quite another to close existing
facilities.
In this sense, the people of Leningrad face far more daunt-
ing tasks than those fighting only further development.
While there is an element of ‘‘Not-In-My-Back-Yard’’
thinking in the program of Leningrad environmentalists
— the debate over construction of the amusement park
is one example — in general, Leningrad environmentalists
are looking towards environmental restoration.
There is a creeping awareness among the people of this
city that they are on the brink of disaster. Even with a
complete ban on polluting activities at the lake, the La-
doga ecosystem will need at least thirty years to heal itself.
Thus people feel that they must begin to redress envi-
ronmental wrongs at the lake now. They argue that the
‘protective structures’’ severing the Neva River from the
94 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Soviet-American
Environmental
Exchange
We are hearing a lot these days about the triumph of cap-
italism and the failure of socialism. While that may be true
in an economic sense, it is irrelevant in environmental
terms — both systems are failing. The US and USSR have
needed each other to keep their Cold War economies go-
ing all these years, and they need each other now, to begin
cleaning up global pollution. While Soviets clamor for con-
sumer goods and American defense industries begin to
calculate the economic impact of sizeable cutbacks, this
coalescing of environmental work and economic redirec-
tion has yet to emerge. The heady changes coming down
in the Eastern Bloc make it all the more frustrating to
watch the facile posing by the insipid airheads currently
in Washington.
Meanwhile, realizing perhaps that it is better to be the
thin edge of the wedge than to worry about airheads, the
Soviet-American Environmental Exchange has formed.
Taking full advantage of the new political climate, it has
grown out of a trip to Leningrad, Vilnius and Moscow by
25 American environmentalists in March 1989. Its aim
is to facilitate cooperation between both countries’ non-
governmental environmental organizations. The US and
the USSR together use a majority of the world’s resources,
and are also the two largest polluters. On the long road
toward the restoration of the global environment, this
group might turn out to be an important player.
—Richard Nilsen
Information free from: Center for US-USSR Initiatives,
3268 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94115.
sea should be dismantled immediately, so that on a sum-
mer day families can once again swim in the shallow Bay
of Finland. As Oleg Petrichenko remarks, ‘“The Leningrad
Dam is a fitting monument to our period of stagnation,
built according to the rules of that time: without paying
heed to public opinion; with money taken from the peo-
ple. The millions already spent won't return . . . but any
further funds should be used for the defense of Ladoga
and the Neva River.’’
In any event, the various groups that make up Leningrad’s
‘environmental opposition’’ will continue to press their
case through the forums provided by the slowly expand-
ing notion of glasnost. ‘‘We are not just fighting for pub-
lic health, or the protection of nature,’ concluded Sergei
Tsvetkov. ‘‘We are also working to change the nature of
the political dialogue about environmental protection
here, to legitimize the idea that a frank discussion of
the environmental impacts of our lifestyle is urgently
needed.’’ m |
Brazil nuts are one rain-forest product that offers an alternative to
burning trees to produce crops or cattle. Here they are loaded onto a
barge bound downriver to Belem and shipment overseas. Rio Branco,
Acre, Brazil. ;
Letting The Amazon
~ Pay Its Own Way
BY JON CHRISTENSEN
It's a bit difficult to criticize forestry practices in other countries when
we Americans are allowing the last sizeable temperate-zone rain forest
on the planet (the Tongass National Forest in Alaska's Panhandle)
to be turned into wood pulp to make Japanese rayon. There, as in
tropical rain forests around the world, the future turns more on people
and jobs than it does on trees and biomes. Solutions that are sus-
tainable both for people and forests have received little attention so
far, but without them, no preservation efforts will be successful in
the long run.
Jon Christensen is a correspondent for Pacific News Service. He spent
last year on assignment in Brazil with photographer Kit Miller, where
they drove 18,000 miles and crossed the Amazon Basin from east to
west and north to south. —Richard Nilsen
spent last year in Brazil, the better part of it in the
Amazon Basin. I recently returned home to Nevada
and the Great Basin of the United States.
I was concerned by what I saw in the rain forest, but
somehow the High Desert Rain Forest Action Group,
which I saw listed in a roundup of this year’s environmen-
tal causes in the local paper, strikes me as too much of
Kit Miller
an oxymoron. At some point ‘‘think globally, act local- -
ly’’ starts to sound a little absurd.
One local rain-forest outfit is trying to get people to adopt
trees in the Amazon. The director promises to send me
a picture of my tree, somewhere in the Amazon, with a
plaque inscribed with my name on it. He says it’s a good
way to guarantee my supply of oxygen.
In the box of junk mail awaiting my return, I found a
whole slew of organizations touting ways I could help
‘‘save the rain forest’’ by writing them a check. I read
about debt-for-nature swaps, ecological preserves and in-
ternational bank campaigns.
Then I read in a back issue of Nature magazine that scien-
tists have already come up with a solution to the burn-
ing problem of the year. They studied two and a half
acres of Amazon forest and found out that harvesting
fruits, nuts, gums, and oils is more profitable-than log-
ging or cattle ranching. The Amazon can pay its own way.
What a relief, I thought, as I burned the alerts and ap-
peals in my fireplace for heat and read on.
Charles Peters of the New York Botanical Gardens paddled
upriver with another botanist and a forester to inventory
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 95
a plot of jungle 20 miles from Iquitos, Peru. In the small
village of Mishana they talked to the locals to find out
what would sell in the local market.
On their small plot, about the size of a suburban lot, they
found 842 trees belonging to 275 different species. Despite
this riot of life forms, less than half of the trees produced
a marketable product. Still, Dr. Peters calculated that leav-
ing the forest standing was a better investment than cut-
ting it down for wood or clearing it for cows. Over one
year, he calculated, your average savvy forest dweller could
make $697.79 by harvesting nine varieties of fruit, wild
chocolate, rubber, and the occasional tree from that lit-
tle bit of jungle.
In one clear cut of the timber, Dr. Peters figured he might
gross $1,000. But in the long run, that wouldn't be a good
financial strategy. Calculating the cumulative value of
sustainable harvests over 50 years, the researchers dis-
covered that their piece of land was worth $6,280. A near-
by tree plantation of the same size was valued at $3,184
while cattle pasture fetched only $2,960.
(These figures were calculated as a current value much
as a financial manager would determine the value of a
long-term bond. Although how researchers were going
to get your average forest dweller to buy that proposition,
when he doesn’t know how to read or make simple cal-
culations, was never explained.)
‘“Deforestation is a bad investment,’’ Dr. Peters conclud-
ed. The most immediate and profitable way of combining
the often-contradictory goals of development and conser-
vation, he said, is the exploitation of the natural fruits
of the forest.
He rejected the notion of setting up nature preserves in
the Amazon. ‘I don’t see any future in simply setting land
aside as pristine parks,’ he told the Washington Post. ‘‘Not
in the Third World. The local people won't buy it and the
local governments won't buy it. The forests must be used
in order to be saved.’
96 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Kit Miller
Rubber tappers watch as an itinerant merchant weighs the rubber they
are trading him for supplies from town. Jurua River, Acre, Brazil.
The finding was hailed as ‘‘the last great hope for saving
the rapidly disappearing rain forests.’’ Environmentalists
have long contended that the forest was more valuable
standing than down, but now scientists had proved it in
dollars and cents. Even the stolid Economist jumped on
the bandwagon, enthusiastically endorsing the idea that
free-market forces should decide the fate of the forests.
Then I noticed that products seeking to tap a rich vein
of rain-forest concern and growing green consumerism
are already appearing on store shelves. This year Ben &
Jerry’s launched ‘‘Rain Forest Crunch’’ with Brazil nuts
gathered by rubber tappers in the Amazon. One can now
‘‘eat ice cream and save the rain forest.’” )
‘The idea is to stop saying no to everything in the Ama-
zon and start offering a positive alternative to the people
who need to make a living there,’ said Jason Clay, an
anthropologist-turned-entrepreneur with the indigenous-
rights group Cultural Survival. Early in 1989, Clay primed
the rain-forest marketing trend by sending 880 pounds
of samples from the Amazon to four companies in the
United States and England, including 45 different fruits,
nuts, oils, and flours.
The Body Shop, a booming chain of natural health and
beauty stores, will soon be offering a Brazil-nut facial
scrub. There is even talk of marketing natural-latex con-
doms with the slogan ‘‘protect yourself, protect the rain
forest.”’ . |
These green businesses want to help improve the terms
of the Amazon economy for the poorest, most powerless
forest dwellers — rubber tappers and Indians. By short-
circuiting the local elite, which now controls most trade
in forest products, they hope to return a bigger share of
profits to ecologically sound projects in the Amazon aim-
ed at diversifying and increasing production, and doing
some processing on-site to capture more of the value
locally.
When I was in the Amazon, the rubber tappers were pro-
moting the concept of ‘extractive reserves’’ to protect the
forest from speculation and deforestation. Chico Mendes
died in the fight to establish a reserve in the state of Acre.
‘‘Now we're talking — think globally, act locally,’ I said
to myself as I hopped into my gas-guzzler and drove to
the supermarket to scoop up a quart of ice cream. Back
at home, my boots in the fire and a spoon in the Ben &
Jerry's, I learned of another interesting plan to save the
rain forests — by raising iguanas rather than cows. I almost
spilled ‘‘Rain Forest Crunch’’ all over myself.
‘Lizards,’ I thought, ‘‘Ick.’’
But I knew that cows are the main culprits behind de-
PE ee
1a TY A
~
forestation; they occupy 85 percent of the cleared land
in Amazonia. Then I remembered the crocodile we ate
with a family of rubber tappers on a journey up a remote
river. It turns out iguanas are also considered a delicacy
in parts of Latin America. They call them ‘‘gallina de
palo,’ or chicken on a stick.
The Green Iguana Foundation and the Smithsonian Trop-
ical Research Institute in Costa Rica extoll the efficiency
with which the sedentary, cold-blooded iguana turns food
into protein. An iguana consumes less than 5 percent of
what a chicken or cow eats to produce an equivalent
pound of meat.
Instead of clearing the forest for pasture, researchers are
urging farmers to raise animals that do well in the forest.
They calculate that a farmer could raise 100 iguanas a year
on a typical two-and-a-half-acre plot of forest. At an
average 6/2 pounds each, the iguanas would produce 650
pounds of low-fat meat, better than the average cattle
ranch.
Dr. Dagmar Werner, director of the iguana project, said
she tested the idea in two Panamanian villages by giving
farmers cages, incubators, and expert advice on nurtur-
ing iguanas. Bet ;
‘“Nobody burns the forest anymore,’ she told the New
York Times. ‘‘The villagers are very enthusiastic and are
_ planting trees like mad.’’
I wondered how long it would be before mesquite-grilled
iguana appeared at the next ecologically hip reception.
' HERE IS A CHANGE coming to the Amazon.
These visionary explorations of ways of making a
living from the rain forest are part of a future for the forest.
But the iguana ranches are still a long way from being
-a commercial success. And while marketing rain-forest
products is a promising avenue, the hype that has sur-
rounded this approach to ‘‘saving the rain forest’’ has
obscured some real problems.
Dr. Werner provided too much help to her fledgling ig-
uana farmers for her experience to reflect real-life condi-
tions. And Ben and Jerry are having a hard time guar-
anteeing the quantity and quality of nuts needed for their
high-test ice cream without going through the local Brazil-
nut barons who have long exploited gatherers.
Besides, in the Brazilian Amazon where I traveled, trade
in ‘‘extractive’’ products supports less than 13 percent of
the population, and the sector’s contribution to the re-
gional economy has declined steadily since the last rub-
ber boom. Close to 15 million people live in the region
now, more than half of them in cities.
I thought about the people in those cities. I found hope
in imagining that in the Amazon, like in the American
West to which it has so often been compared, the facts
of the landscape will still dominate human endeavors in
the future. Here it is a desert, there a rain forest, but both
environments exact careful human attention to the reali-
ties of the land and a heavy price from those who fail
to pay attention.
The great Amazon Bason is a landscape changing on a
human scale before the eyes of the world. Maybe iguana
ranches will be part of that landscape in the future, along
with extractive reserves, national forests, parks, and In-
dian reservations, but so will cities, dams, highways, cat-
tle ranches, farms and mines. @
The Fate of the Forest
The issue in the rainforest is not fire
books to look at the Amazon after the
death of Chico Mendes, whose murder
suddenly cast rubber tappers on center
stage as the true guardians of the rain
forest. After exploring what has made
the Amazon such a hot topic lately —
according to Hecht and Cockburn it is
“the symbolic content of the dreams it
_ignites’’ — The Fate of the Forest lays
out a clear, concise history of the poli-
tical economy of the Amazon.
Popular myths of why the Amazon is
going up in smoke are soundly debunked
— it’s not due to exporting cattle or
timber, it’s not because of multinationals,
and it’s not because of Brazil’s huge
debt. The authors show how the Brazil-
ian military’s dream of occupying the —
Amazon spawned a feeding frenzy of
tax credits and incentives for deforesta-
tion for wealthy companies and indi-
viduals from the developed south of
Brazil. But they take pains to clarify that
fire is an essential part of tropical
agriculture and that cattle can be a
rational hedge against inflation for set-
tlers and forest dwellers in an economy
where banks mean nothing and. money
means less every day.
Hecht and Cockburn also give a most
accurate rendering of Brazil’s grassroots
struggle to save the Amazon, a fight
more for justice than ecological pre-
serves. They don’t flinch at portraying
Chico Mendes as the “extremely radical
political militant’’ that he was as a rub-
ber-tapper union organizer. It’s a pity,
though, that in their effort to reduce the
hopes of the Amazon to “‘socialist ecol-
ogy,’ the authors lean too heavily on a
tiresome class analysis and, to my dis-
appointment, invoke messianic Brazilian
rebellions that ended in massacres in
the past, as if they should be models for
the fate of the forest. They leave me
fearing for the new martyrs who will fall
for the cause. —Jon Christensen
r
Fire is essential to the management of
humid tropical forests for human pur-
poses. Only an American generation
brought up on the ursine caveats of
Smoky the Bear would find anything
odd about this. . . .
ET ee code
itself, but its purposes. Does its use in a
particular instance inhibit regeneration,
diminish the diversity of species and
waste nutrients, or is it part of a process
through which this diversity is enhanced,
nutrients recaptured in new vegetation,
and regeneration encouraged?
Land in the Amazon became a vehicle
for capturing incentives, cheap credits,
and itself assumed the form of a spec-
ulative instrument and an object_of ex-
change rather than being an input into
agriculture.
The Fate of
The Forest
Susanna Hecht and
Alexander Cockburn
1989; 266 pp.
$24.95
($27.95 postpaid) from
Routledge,
Chapman & Hall,
29 W. 35th St.,
New York,
NY 10001;
212/244-3336
(or Whole Earth Access).
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 97
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ow could any place be so lifeless?, | wondered.
Not a wisp of grass showed anywhere. Not
an insect crept among the rocks. I was stand-
ing on fossil coral rubble left in an abandon-
ed quarry near Mombasa on the coast of Kenya. It was
a man-made desert, created after the Bamburi Cement
Company had dug out 30 feet of limestone.
Quarry Restoration In Kenya
BY NORMAN MYERS |
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILLIAM CAMPBELL
Yet a five-minute walk away, over a ridge on the same Bam-
buri site, I found myself in one of the most luxuriant
scenes I have encountered in Kenya. Trees towered all
around. Lush grass proliferated underfoot. Insects swarm-
ed and birds flitted about. Up ahead, fish bunched in a
series of pools. A hippo wallowed contentedly. Crocodiles
sunned themselves. Beyond them, cattle, sheep and goats
grazed with herds of semi-domesticated eland and oryx.
‘It's surprising what nature can do when you lend a help-
ing hand,’ explained my companion, .Rene Haller, a
stocky Swiss agronomist. ‘’The trick is to get something
started, a few plants, then let nature get on with it Africa-
style.’ A self-trained specialist in restoring man-blighted
lands, Haller, now in his 50s, is manager of Baobab Farm,
a Bamburi subsidiary set up to reclaim the quarry. ‘‘The
company asked me to do something, anything, to con-
ceal the scars of its quarrying,’ he says. ‘‘Here you see
some results of working with nature.’
Haller’s ‘‘results’’ are remarkable. He has restored more
than 250 of almost 900 acres of blasted landscape, but
the significance of his work goes far beyond the mere
reclamation of a derelict quarry. Haller has made Bam-
Copyright 1986 by the National Wildlife Federation. Reprint-
ed from the Nov./Dec. 1986 issue of International Wildlife.
\
98 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
oo... es
Robert Horvitz pointed us towards this story, after hearing
a version of it on the radio. Quarries have long been sites
for restoration; Canada’s Butchart Gardens in Victoria,
British Columbia, is one of the oldest and most famous.
Norman Myers is the author of The Sinking Ark and The
—RFichard Nilsen
Primary Source.
buri a ray of hope for a continent with some of the worst
environmental problems on Earth. In the process, he has
demonstrated to small-scale farmers that they, too, can
make their marginal lands fruitful. If Haller’s message can
be spread widely enough, throngs of peasants, whose
rudimentary agriculture now tends to lay waste to their
soil, can regenerate their environments and enhance their
‘living standards.
Haller’s success has been to combine his own brand of
low-cost pragmatism with time-proven customs and new
farming techniques. Development experts have long pro-
claimed the virtues of using local plants and animals for
innovative agriculture — especially for a technique known
as agriforestry, which combines growing trees with rais-
ing crops and livestock. Trees supply fuelwood, building
poles, foods and livestock browse, and some species add
natural fertilizer to the soil. Above all, the theory goes,
trees protect the African earth, and they represent the best
approach to the regreening of the continent. The problem
has been producing the goods without costly inputs of
fuel and fertilizer. Yet Haller has managed to get it all
(Left) Rene Haller has helped
transform a Kenyan cement
quarry into a food- and
timber-producing nature
preserve called Baobab Farm
(far left).
(Below left) An oryx grazes on
part of 258 restored acres, with
the cement plant visible in
the background.
together using a return to traditional agriculture — and
brains rather than money.
Meticulously organized and ever inventive, Rene Haller
exudes effervescent good spirits. He is one part bright-
eyed man of ideas, another part hard-nosed entrepreneur.
‘‘There’s always a better way,’ he says, and ‘‘everything
must pay its way.
Haller’s African success story began in 1959 when he ar-
rived in Mombasa to join the cement company. Bamburi
was already a major Kenya enterprise, mining prehistoric
beds of coral for limestone to manufacture cement. Ce-
ment was so precious in a developing country that at first
nobody objected if the operation left horrendous gashes
across the landscape. But the company began to grow
sensitive about its scarred-earth image. So it turned to
agronomist Haller. They would pay his salary to restore
plant cover, give him some staff, and lend him a little
equipment — that was it. Just the sort of challenge Haller
welcomed.
But how to get anything, anything at all, to grow on bare
coral with virtually no underground water? Walking with
Haller around a newly abandoned patch of quarry, I scuff-
ed the surface with my boot. The action left more im-
pression on my foot than on the ground. ‘The earth is
so. rock hard,’ explained Haller, ‘‘that I have to get my
staff to dig holes with picks before I plant trees.”’
All told, Haller has found only a half-dozen tree species
that can prosper in such hostile conditions. The best one
appears to be casuarina, a needle-leaved tree that soars
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 99
ig Piro
once it gets a foothold in the harsh
Bamburi terrain. It is one of those
specialized plants that supply their
own nitrogen fertilizer by plucking
the raw material out of the atmo-
sphere. So vigorously have Haller’s
casuarinas grown that his grove of
several dozen acres produced no
less than 50 tons of fuelwood after
only five years of growth.
Two other species, planted in tan-
dem, tell a special tale of Haller’s
ingenuity. The fast-growing Cono-
carpus, viewed by traditional for-
esters almost as a ‘‘weed,’ has
been scarcely used on plantations
despite the excellent charcoal it
produces. Its drawback is that it
requires fertilizer. The Prosopis, a
relative of the American mesquite
shrub, is not so super-speedy at
growing, but it fixes atmospheric
nitrogen. It also produces masses
of flowers for honeymaking, plus fruits suitable for
livestock feed. A plantation of both trees produces a far
better forest than if the two species are grown separately.
This kind of interrelatedness is the key factor in all of
Haller’s activities. ‘‘Nature does not do things by com-
partments, nor should we, if we are to take advantage of
the full natural bounty of the Earth,’ he philosophizes.
His livestock program illustrates that principle as well.
Baobab Farm's 258 acres support 500 sheep, 160 goats and
25 cattle. The animals feed on grass that now grows among
the trees in a thin layer of new soil produced from leaf
litter. They also eat foliage and other sorts of fodder
generated by the diverse types of plantings. ‘‘If my pas-
ture were open grassland, the livestock would not survive
a drought year,’ Haller says. ‘‘But the forest provides
shade as well as food, and it saves them during the drier
periods.’’
In among the domestic animals roam 25 eland and 20
oryx, antelopes that normally live wild in Kenya. They
are hardy and need next to no water. They also eat dif-
ferent plants from those consumed by conventional
livestock, so they do not compete for scarce forage. They
produce more meat per unit of animal weight than does
a typical African cow, contain more protein, and if Kenya's
laws banning sale of wildlife products are changed, could
yield commercial meat.
Still another source of protein produced at Baobab is fish. ©
Initially, Haller used the forest lakes at Bamburi to ex-
periment with aquaculture, stocking his ponds with
tilapia, a succulent fish that proliferates in East Africa's
natural lakes. Since the ponds contained weeds and algae,
he left the tilapia largely to their own devices. Then,
following the lead of experts involved in intensive fish-
farming in Asia, he built a series of fish-rearing tanks,
restoring the ponds to natural pools once again.
j 00 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Harvesting tilapia, a fast-growing fish, on Baobab Farm. The fish are
sold on the local market.
The outcome is an unparalleled success. As Haller en-
thusiastically explains, raising domestic fish is probably
the most efficient method known for producing animal
protein. The fish need just under two pounds of feed to
produce one pound of flesh. By comparison, cattle gen- —
erally have a ‘‘conversion ratio’’ of about 10:1. Haller’s
intensive system produces 35 tons of fish a year from a
mere one-third of an acre. It is at least as economic, he
points out, as going to sea in a boat to catch ‘‘wild’’ fish.
As with most of Haller’s ideas, there are easy-to-duplicate
lessons for local people. Every ‘‘Shamba,’’ or smallholder
plot of a few acres, has space for a simple pond lined with
clay, gravel or sand. The owner throws in a few finger-
lings, then occasional handfuls of farm garbage. And
Transplanting tree seedlings in a quarry nursery.
Once established, the decomposed leaf litter from
these trees will create scarce topsoil. The bag-like
plastic containers are cheap and easy for workers |
to carry.
ne ges
that’s it. A 10-square-yard pond can generate more animal
protein in a week than many Africans get in a month.
Already, Haller’s package has been adopted throughout
much of Kenya and in several other countries of Africa,
principally by farmers’ associations, village cooperatives,
and government and development agencies. In addition,
his methods have won the praise of the United Nations
agency that leads the field in fish affairs, the Food and
Agriculture Organization. He's also attracting the interest
of the World Bank, an agency that normally deals only
in superscale projects.
Meanwhile, the start-out ponds have steadily attracted
an array of birdlife — 130 species in all. The pond area
and the original forest expanse have been fenced off, and
the 18-acre enclosure now accommodates several buffalo,
bushbuck, duiker, suni, warthogs, hippos, civet cats,
mongooses, snakes, and crocodiles. Haller now charges
admission to tourists to see this new side of his operation.
Local people, who also visit, are introduced to other
aspects of Haller’s integrated philosophy. One of the new-
est is crocodile farming. Haller feeds 700 young crocs a
diet of fish offal and waste from livestock carcasses. The
crocs, raised in the original fish ponds and in a crocodile
compound, cost nothing to keep, and when they reach
_ sufficient length within just a few years, Haller will make
a tidy profit by marketing their high-value skins. In turn,
their meat will be fed back to the fish.
And that’s only the beginning. In moister parts of his
farm, Haller harvests surplus earthworms which offer top-
grade protein for his tilapias. In waste-flow channels, he
raises giant African snails for human food. And he plans
to use fish excrement and general fish-pond sludge to
generate biogas for energy. He has introduced millipedes
Sally the hippo with another revenue source for Baobab Farm —
tourists. A wild-born orphaned animal, Sally is semi-tame. She was
raised by a maker of wildlife films, but moved here after she
wandered onto his porch and ate his couch.
_into his casuarina groves to speed the transformation of
leaf litter into soil. He is growing grapes for winemaking
on steep hillsides, collecting honey from hives he estab-
lished in his Prosopis trees, and even growing bananas
using ingenious but simple methods to coax moisture
from the normally dry soil.
Such inventiveness may be an antidote to many of Kenya’s
problems. The bulk of the country’s population is made
up of small-scale cultivators — and the population, now
20 million, is already overloading the nation’s capacity
to support it. For these hard-pressed multitudes, whose
numbers may double by the year 2000, the value in Hal-
ler’s operation is that a farmer can often get the most from
his patch of land by enabling it to produce food, fiber,
and fuel all at once in a mutually supportive mixture. In
the past, Western agriculturalists have generally taught
Africans that segmented plots and monocultures are
‘‘good farming’’ and that a mixed system is messy. Now
those ideas have to be unlearned.
Part of the beauty of Haller’s model is its low cost. Bao-
bab Farm is essentially self-financing. Although Haller is
on the company’s payroll, he supplies fish, meat, fruit,
and fuelwood for the company’s work force, and he sells
more to outsiders. He also gets revenues from those or-
ganizations that pay for his expertise, and he collects
entrance fees from tourists. It is a measure of the prof-
itability of his enterprise that it keeps on expanding —
and that Haller can keep on trying out new ideas. ‘']
would not want anything else,’’ he explains. ‘‘How could
I possibly promote it to others if it did not stand up
commercially?’’ —
And Haller’s ideas are being promoted. As word gets
around, more local farmers are coming to see what they
can try out back home. I met such
a group, from near Nairobi 300
miles inland. Why had they travel-
ed all that way?, I asked. ‘‘Well,
our children are many and our
acres are few. The chief of our
village tells us we must look for
fresh horizons in here,’ their
leader said, pointing to his head.
‘We had heard of this Swiss man
_ who smiles and makes something
out of nothing. We want to see for
ourselves. ’ .
Similarly, I talked with a delega-
tion from farms 50 miles away
along the coast, on their way out
from the quarry forest. ‘‘ Now we
see the difference,’ one of them
said, ‘‘between wasteland and
wasted land. Here is a forest grow-
ing on a desert. And | heard that
some trees are fertilizer factories,
but I thought it was just another
expert’s tale. My eyes tell me the
truth.’ »
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i 0 j
*
Y 1953, when South Ko-
rea and North. Korea
\ signed the Armistice
) Agreement that ended
the Korean War, the 151-
mile-strip designated as
the demilitarized zone had been
devastated. Once littered with ter-
raced rice fields, small crop plots
and villages, the DMZ was bare of
vegetative cover, pockmarked by
bomb craters, and crisscrossed by
hundreds of artillery roads. Towns
and farms had been forsaken.
Most of the region’s forests had
been razed to deny enemy North
Koreans cover. Four million lives
had been lost. So too had hun-
dreds of acres of farmlands and
wildlife habitat.
Today, the scarred slopes have
been invaded by mixed hardwood
forest. Terraced rice paddies have
converted to marshland. Grass
and shrubs have conquered aban- |
doned farms. The trumpeting cries
of the endangered Manchurian
cranes replace the sound of gun-
fire; pheasants, deer, lynx, and oc-
casional tigers roam the still hea-
vily land-mined area. What is a
military no-man’'s land — site of
the longest cease-fire in history,
only one gunshot from explosive conflict — has become
a wildlife sanctuary. And it has become that with no aid
_ from humans — other than removing our presence.
The Korean DMZ illustrates an idea many of us forget:
Nature heals itself. In the midst of warnings of humans’
irrevocable impact, news of an irrepressible nature sounds
peculiar. But the DMZ story is not an isolated example.
Plants and animals are very stubborn. Given a distur-
bance, an ecosystem regenerates, even without our help-
ing hands. Put another way, ecosystems regenerate if we
leave them alone.
What's curious is that we've forgotten that.
If you ask most people to think of places in the world
that ‘‘came back’”’ after devastating human impact, you'll
stump them. Most pause and say, ‘‘What an interesting
question.’’ Many look nervous. The idea does not fit en-
vironmentalist, or anti-corporate, thinking. It’s easier to
think of areas that humans ruined than it is to think of
areas that nature healed.
If you ask a professional ecologist if nature regenerates,
you ll get a different answer. Ecologists are different from
environmentalists. ‘‘Ecology’’ connotes study — general-
ly of ecosystems. ‘‘Environmentalism’’ connotes advocacy
— also of ecosystems. But an ecologist won't grimace at
i 02 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Natural |
Restoration
When Humans Walk Away
BY SUSAN E. DAVIS
It is damn near impossible for us
humans to step out of the picture,
and harder still to realize when we
do that Nature doesn’t miss us.
Susan Davis is a free-lance writer
who lives in Berkeley, California.
—Richard Nilsen
Endangered Manchurian
cranes find sanctuary in the
abandoned and still heavily
land-mined Korean DMZ.
International Crane Foundation
the idea that nature comes back. An ecologist will ask
“What do you mean by ‘come back’?’’
Good point. Recovery can refer to vegetative cover which
differs from pre-disturbance cover. Swordgrass and
shrubs, for example, cover much of the 9,000 acres the
U.S. bulldozed in Vietnam during the war. But that area
used to be hardwood forest. Trees grow on Enewetok,
Pacific test site of nearly 50 U.S. nuclear bombs in the
1950s and 1960s. But the few inhabitants living there can-
not eat the fruit because it is so highly contaminated with
radioactivity. ‘‘ Nature will always adapt,’’ says Neo Mar-
tinez, an ecologist with UC Berkeley’s Energy and Re-
sources Department. ‘‘The question is with what.’
In more specific terms, however, recovery refers to an
ecosystem returning to its pre-disturbance condition.
Korea is a good example of this kind of recovery. The _
DMZ returned to its condition before the impact of 20th-
century human war and before the impact of human ag-
riculture — which began several thousand years ago.
Whether or not a devastated area recovers depends on a
number of conditions. Most fundamentally, the site needs
its original topsoil. That top layer, also called the top,
or A, horizon, contains the nutrients and microfauna
necessary for plants to grow. Its composition may result
from thousands of years of geological processes. ‘‘When _
you work in ecology long enough, you become obsessed
with soils,’ says Peter Warshall, an international biological
consultant. ‘‘I almost think about soils more often than
I think about plants.’’
In temperate zones, topsoil often contains seeds, and stem
and root fragments, from which new plant life emerges.
Some seeds can lie dormant in the topsoil for hundreds
of years. But if that A horizon is removed — in the course
of strip-mining, or erosion from clear-cutting — there is,
literally, no groundwork from which an ecosystem can
develop.
Similarly, if the top horizon is altered — by adding
chemicals, ploughing or planting crops — a different kind
of vegetation emerges when the site is abandoned. That’s
what happened on many now-abandoned farm sites in
New England and the Midwest. But if neither fertilizers
nor crops are introduced, even heavily used areas can
return to the condition of nearby undisturbed areas. Cer-
tain grazing lands in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park,
for instance, were cordoned off from domesticated
animals, and recovered within two or three years.
Even when the topsoil of an area is not removed, full
recovery will not occur without seeds. Some lie dormant
_ in the soil. Others drift in from nearby vegetated areas.
Birds and animals also carry seeds in their feathers, fur
or digestive systems. Damaged ecosystems surrounded by
undamaged areas have an easier time recovering than
those isolated by geographical barriers, such as oceans,
mountains, deserts and cities. And once deposited, the
seed has to fall into a niche that facilitates germination.
Sunlight, moisture, temperature and nutrients all have to
be in the right proportions.
The process of the subsequent vegetative recovery is call-
ed ‘‘ecological succession.’ Its first proponent was
naturalist Frederic C. Clements, who claimed that all
ecological formations follow an orderly progression from
inception to perpetually stable ‘ ‘climax communities, ’ or
self-replicating assemblages of plants. ‘‘As an organism,’
he wrote in 1916, ‘‘the formation arises, grows, matures,
and dies. .. . The climax formation is the adult organism,
of which all initial and medial stages are but stages of
development.’
Clements’s theory was strongly rooted in Darwinian ideas
of biological evolution, and spin-off ideals of social ‘‘prog-
ress.’ Today, most ecologists don't believe in ‘‘climax com-
munities.’’ Ecosystems change continually, they say.
Targeting an ideal, or even stable, formation is next to im-
possible. The system may pass through a ‘‘mature’’ or
‘‘climax’’ state, but it may be on the way to something
else, often to something simpler.
Still, most ecologists recognize that succession occurs.
Hardy ‘‘pioneer’’ species invade a disturbed site, and are
then replaced by a series of other plant, insect, and animal
associations. The progression, for many modern-day
ecologists, is not towards stability, but within constantly
changing factors.
Recovery also depends on the stability of an ecosystem.
Stability, according to ecologist C.S. Holling, is a system's
ability to absorb change and recover rapidly. (Another
ecological term, ‘resilience,’ refers to a system's ability to
withstand disturbance in the first place). Arid regions are
generally less stable than moist ones. You can still see tank
tracks, for instance, in the Southern California desert,
where General Patton led his Desert Training Corps — in
WWII. Such marks would disappear in the rain, litter and
vegetation of a northern forest.
No matter what the stability of an ecosystem, however,
recovery really depends on time and space. That is, if the
time-scale is long enough, and the space-scale is small
enough, most areas will revegetate, given the appropriate
seed and soil conditions, and an appropriate ‘‘hands-off’”’
attitude by humans.
RAINFORESTS
For centuries, humans in rainforests in Central and South
America, Asia, and Africa have relied on natural restora-
tion in plant cultivation. In slash-and-burn agriculture,
forest dwellers chop 1- to 3-acre plots, and then burn the
‘‘slash.’’ Unlike temperate forests, 70 percent of a rain-
forest's calcium, magnesium and potassium are stored in
the biomass above ground. Burning releases nutrients into
the soil. Farmers cultivate plants for two or three years,
until the soil wears out. Then the farmers move to other
plots, allowing the original site to grow back.
Christopher Uhl, an ecologist at Penn State, studies
whether or not rainforests can come back after distur-
bance. Uhl has found that despite the trauma of slash-
ing and burning forest areas, cultivated plots can return
to rainforest within 100 years — if they’re left alone. In
the first year, seeds for woody pioneer species blow in
from plants surrounding the plot. Often they germinate
in the safe shade of fallen logs or random pineapple
trees, where dead leaves and nutrients nurture the seed-
ling. These pioneers then create the shady micro-climates
that then enable slower growing, primary forest species
to germinate.
Small plots and long fallow periods allow tropical forests
to regenerate. But when a plot is too large, it cannot
regenerate as easily. Uhl studied a 25-acre site near San
Carlos, Panama, which had been cut and bulldozed in
1971 to build a military post. Two years later, the post was
abandoned, leaving all 25 acres deprived of regenerating
mechanisms. The bulldozing scraped off the topsoil, with
its precious seeds, stems and roots. It also removed the
felled biomass, thereby stripping the site of nutrients and
safe germination sites for seeds from nearby forest.
Uhl predicts that the 15-acre central plot will remain total-
ly bare for a millennium, because it is too far from the
nearest seed trees. Perimeter acres show some signs of
recovery, in the form of grasses and shrubs. But none are
taller than 10 feet. This area too will take centuries to
revegetate. The danger here is that certain species can
be permanently lost if their delicate habitat does not
regenerate. >
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i 03
That's only 25 acres. One thing that Uhl's studies — and
those of others, including Robert Bushchbaker of the Con-
servation Fund — highlight is that devastated areas need
proximity to non-disturbed areas in order to regenerate.
Currently 150 acres of rainforest fall per minute in the
Amazon. 3.6 million acres are cleared each year. Fifty-
five percent of the original tree cover is already lost. Miles-
wide swatches have been stripped of vegetation, burned
repeatedly and packed down by cattle hooves. Those areas
won't regenerate — and their hot, open spaces will damage
remaining stands of forest.
TEMPERATE FORESTS
‘“Trees,’’ wrote Steward H. Holbrook, in the 19th-century
Yankee Loggers, ‘‘merely hide in the soil until the man with
the axe or hoe has turned his back for a moment, instantly
to send up their first shoots to advance in astonishing
numbers and size until all signs of man’s efforts have been
obliterated.’
Holbrook may have been exaggerating, but northern
temperate forests do heal more easily than rainforests,
even after massive clearcutting takes place. Warm, wet
conditions facilitate germination and rapid growth in rain-
forests. But northern forests have less than one-tenth the
number of species per acre than do rainforests. And that
— in combination with a deep bed of vegetative litter, and
highly resilient seeds — means that northern forests have
an easier time returning to their condition
pre-disturbance.
The Shenandoah National Park is ‘probably the largest-
scale recovery from human abuse we know,’’ says Dun-
can Morrow, Recreational Resource Assistant of the Na-
National Park Service
Human habitats and structures are allowed to slowly
disintegrate in the Shenandoah National Park, as part of
a hands-off policy. .
: 04 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
tional Park Service. The Shenandoah had been farmed,
grazed, mined, burned and logged for over 200 years
before being made a national park in 1935. At that time,
one-third of its 195,000 acres was open grazing land. All
but 5 percent had been cut over at one time or another.
Fifty years later, hardwood deciduous forest covers most
of the area. Containing over 108 tree species, the forest
is one of the most diverse in the world. Oak and hickory
predominate, with sprinklings of American beech,
sycamores, and tall tulip poplar. The undergrowth is heavy
with mountain laurels, ferns, bushes and shrubs. Deer,
bear, fox, bobcat and cougar roam throughout. Roads are
crumbling, and abandoned houses are crawling with
vegetation. Besides those remnants of human presence,
“it’s hard to distinguish between these areas and de-
ciduous areas that have not have been clearcut,’ says
Chuck Anibal, chief interpreter for the park. ‘‘There is
no obvious aesthetic difference to the casual observer. ’’
Where there is a difference is between the secondary oak
forest and the virgin pockets of densely packed 200-year-
old eastern hemlocks. There, thick canopy shades dark,
open forest floor. But the qualitative difference, Anibal
insists, is due to species composition, not time.
In 1976, Congress added 125 square miles to the park,
under the Wilderness Preservation System. When the
Wilderness Act was passed in 1964 it made the U.S. the
first country to legislate a recognition of the value of
‘‘wilderness.’’ The act defines ‘‘wilderness’’ as ‘‘an area
where the earth and its communities of life are untram-
meled by man.”
The crucial elements in the Shenandoah recovery were
that it was left alone, and that sufficient seeds sources ex-
isted for regeneration. As in the rainforests, when human
impact ceased, nature had a chance to heal. But unlike
rainforests, the Shenandoah didn't lose its seed sources.
Seeds still existed in the soil, and the forest was never com-
- pletely clearcut. Uncut, diverse segments still existed.
The same is true with the demilitarized zone in Korea.
The armistice signing ended the shooting phase of what
is now called the Forgotten War. It also ended any civilian
presence in the area. Entrance into the DMZ is strictly
controlled now. Only that has allowed the 2.4 mile-wide
zone to regenerate — with some of the tallest patches of
wild forest in Korea — and to create feeding grounds for
the endangered white-naped and Manchurian cranes.
Had the DMZ been ‘‘reforested,’’ the tree cover would
be a stiff-rowed monocultural forest. Areas in Korea that
were reforested after the war still look ‘‘scalped,’’ says
George Archibald, a biologist with the International Crane
Foundation, who has done significant work in creating
Korean preserves for endangered cranes. Instead, the —
DMZ hosts a mixed arboreal regrowth.
“It took my breath away,’ says Bernard Trainor, military
correspondent for The New York Times, who fought in the
war and visited the DMZ last year. ‘‘You’d never know
it had been turned to sand during the war. I was able to
identify all of the terrain features, but it looked com-
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Now a lush wetlands, this naturally
restored Minnesota quarry provides a
habitat for nearly twice as many bird
species as the same area did before
mining.
pletely different. Now it is overgrown
with foliage. It was a very emotional ex-
perience.’
Nature often does a better job at restora-
tion than humans do. Take strip mining,
for instance. Appalachian sites mined
thirty years ago, before reclamation
regulations, have begun to regenerate
on their own. ‘‘Nature has done a re-
markable job so far,’’ says Skip Deegan,
coordinator of the Sierra Club's Strip
Mining Project. ‘‘ Now we primarily have nitrogen-fixing
trees, like locust, and autumn olive. But as you go fur-
ther down the mountain, you see little hardwood trees
beginning to spring up. Within 20 to 25 years, hardwoods
will return.”’
Mining companies today have to reclaim strip sites to their
original condition, or “‘better.’’ Restored areas often con-
_ tain only ‘‘drought-resistant grasses that pop up within
a day or two,’ Deegan says. These are supposed to in-
crease the value of the land. ‘‘Basically it’s stabilized,’
Deegan says. ‘‘There’s some erosion, but nothing too
outrageous. But this is a long shot from a good solid
growth of trees.”’
Similarly, abandoned, mined-out gravel pits can some-
times regenerate more successfully than those that are
““restored.’’ Before mining began, at what is now called
the Red River Natural History Area, near Crookston, Min-
‘nesota, the area was mostly prairie lands. When the
85-acre site was in operation, it was dusty, barren, and
open. When mining ceased in 1960, the pits had filled
with groundwater, which eventually created wetlands.
Willow and cottonwood seeds floated in on the wind and
germinated in the damp soil. Seeds of flower-bearing
shrubs like snowberry and raspberry came next. Today,
the area is lush with clusters of cottonwood, dogwood,
and cattails, honeysuckle, chokecherry, and nannyberry.
Red-winged blackbirds, warbling vireos, skunks, foxes,
and even moose, use this as habitat.
‘‘Many of the areas mined and then left behind could not
have been wildlife habitat if they had been reclaimed ac-
cording to regulations,’ says Dan Svedarsky, head resear-
cher at the site, which is run through the Northwest
Agricultural Experiment Station, at the University of Min-
nesota. ‘They would have been used for agriculture or
development.’
For some wildlife, Red River regenerated to a condition
better than before mining. Today, nearly twice as many
species of birds use the site as habitat than were record-
ed when mining began in 1900. Thirty-eight of those
species are rare or endangered.
Both the DMZ and the gravel pit instances raise a ‘‘what
next?’’ question. Regenerated areas tend to attract
humans. Scientists in Great Britain have understood the
habitat value of restored gravel pits since the 1930s and
1940s, when they found that the wetlands attracted rare
birds, including the great crested grebe and the little ring-
ed plover. Gravel companies quickly converted habitat
value to recreational value. Many sites now offer fishing,
swimming and power-boating. One site, operated by
Ready Mix Concrete Ltd. even offers a Disney-like theme
park. That may not attract wildlife.
Unless naturally restored areas are protected, humans will
return. Red River and the Shenandoah National Park are
both protected. But if North and South Korea ever reunite,
human politics could wreak havoc on the present environ-
ment of the DMZ, just as it inadvertently allowed a
wildlife sanctuary to emerge there 36 years ago.
One interesting thing about ecology is that as you learn,
you see. When I drive down city streets now, I marvel less
at human omnipresence — walls of brick and carpets of
concrete — than I do at the sheer persistence of non-
human life. Weeds struggle through pavement, saplings
sway in sidewalk niches, dandelion puffs sail past plate
glass. windows, seeking soil in which to lodge. Some of
these travelers look tenacious, healthy, resilient. Others
look neurasthenetic. But they’re there.
Some human impacts are undeniably irrevocable, especial-
ly those that persist in time and space long after the ac-
tual activity ceases. DDT disperses through the food web,
thereby affecting plants and animals thousands of miles
and decades from the original spraying. Plutonium has
a radioactive half-life of 24,000 years. Chlorofluorocar-
bons destroy ozone molecules 150 years after their release
in the atmosphere. And every extinction is forever. If
anything, understanding nature's ability to heal should
drive us to more adamantly regulate persistent activities
and substances, to allow damaged areas to recover, and
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 \ 05
Dan Svedarsky
SD AA, AAMAS AN, ARAN
SSCS Ee SS
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Restoring Cities
From The Bottom Up
®
A Bi-Coastal View From The Street
&
BY MIKE HELM AND GEORGE TUKEL
®
Say the words ‘‘urban restoration’’ and most people think of fixing
up old houses. Urban gentrification has spawned a whole industry
during the last twenty years, one well served by magazines like The
Old-House Journal. This movement began as a reaction to the ur-
ban renewal of the 1960s, when entire neighborboods of old houses
were simply bulldozed. Today it is not the houses that are in jeopar-
dy. As a friend of mine says, explaining why be quit the bistoric pre-
servation business in San Francisco, ‘‘I realized a while ago that
there were enough Gucci-shoed lawyers to protect every last Victorian
”
in San Francisco.
It is the urban public spaces that are now in need of restoration —
the sidewalks, schools, parks, and playgrounds. Because these en-
vironments are public, they are much more vulnerable to abuse and
destruction than houses, which have owners to protect them.
Mike Helm is a writer, and also publishes City Miner Books from
bis home in a warehouse district in Berkeley, California. George Tukel
spent five years rehabilitating and solarizing homes owned by low-
income people in New Jersey, and has also helped neighborhood groups
design pocket parks in New York City. He currently lives in New
Paltz, New York. —Richard Nilsen
) 06 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
A neighborhood in ruin
Beck Street at Fox, South —
Bronx, 1978.
HEN people talk about
how best to restore cities, the debate is usually framed
within the boundaries of two ostensibly different perspec-
tives. On the one side are professional environmentalists,
on the other advocates of growth. Reading the daily paper,
and watching the evening news filled with sixty-second
stories, these two camps appear as antagonists. Yet a
strong case can be made that the Sierra and Rotary Clubs
— in terms of their institutional effect — aren't that far
apart. Through the planning, legal, and media processes,
we believe, they more often than not legitimize each other
in ways that ultimately perpetuate the current displaced
industrial culture that is destroying our cities. To see how
this could be so, let's look a little closer at each of these
perspectives.
Typically, environmentally oriented advocates expound
upon the need for clean air and water, energy conserva-
tion and the development of sensitive waste-management
systems. For them a strong imperative is the development
of more urban sanctuaries — like green belts and open
spaces — devoid of concrete and automobiles, that would
bring humans into closer touch with nature's other plant
and animal communities. Underlying this vision is the
humanistic view that the only way to make cities livable
is to minimize the direct and secondary effects of
industrialization.
For growth-oriented advocates, urban restoration is
centered on successful and expanding businesses and ever
more development. They are less concerned with pollu-
tion and communing with nature than with making
money and creating jobs, to expand the tax base, to
upgrade the social services with which to fight major ur-
ban problems like unemployment, crime and
homelessness. The trickling down of corporate culture is
seen as the means to remedy social ills.
In the real life of cities, of course, the record of urban
Carlos Ortiz
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i
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decay — with its pollution, home-
lessness, drug problems and general
disintegration of the physical infra-
structure — proves that neither the
environmental nor the corporate view
has been sufficient to restore our
cities. Even though specific elements
from each of these views have validi-
ty, they have ultimately reenforced
each other as one ongoing patholog-
ical program of urban growth and
decay. While environmentalists may |
see themselves as _ restorationists
when they mitigate development
plans, we believe that in fact, they ©
have become blind, if not antagonis-
tic, to the alternatives that would restore our cities. More
often than not, they wind up — through the mitigation
process — legitimizing developers and the top-down struc-
ture that has brought us to the current conditions. If ur-
ban restoration is to occur, we believe that it will happen
only within a framework that is both broader and different
from either the corporate or environmental agendas.
The evolution of cities currently has more to do with the
short-term profits of developers, constrained by zoning
_ and environmental regulations, than it does with insur-
ing the viability of the diverse communities that make up
cities. Our restoration view assumes a fundamental depar-
ture from this way of getting things done — not only in
terms of a wise and conserving use of resources, but also
in planning and decision-making as well. Our view of ur-
ban restoration involves a grassroots, street-level emphasis
on making cities convivial places to live in by wedding
natural and human ecology. Without allowing people to
interact more freely with each other and to identify more
closely with the natural systems within which they live,
it isn’t possible to make urban life convivial. Ultimately,
there is a connection between an enduring urban culture
and the health of the rivers, hills, creeks and bays that
surround Cities.
Our view of restoration is also traditional. We recognize
that cities are about people. An important part of what
we mean by conviviality involves nourishing ongoing com-
_ munity vitality. We want to encourage the enjoyment of
a festive society. We extend the meaning of conviviality
to the art and practice of living together as a community
— the breaking of bread among neighbors — within the
context of neighborhood character and scale. Toward this
end, the memory of a community is important to its iden-
tity and can only be maintained by the preservation of
its past. ;
Urban restoration also depends on the re-establishment
of the public domain in the form of the ‘‘Commons”’ —
places for everyday socializing, like mixed-use community
parks, or sidewalks and streets designed as meeting places
for weekend produce markets, neighborhood swap meets
and block parties. Reconnecting urban awareness to
natural systems is also necessary. And convivial urban
Environmentalists
have become
blind, if not
antagonistic, to the
alternatives that
would restore
Our cities.
SEUSS: aia
restoration requires a loosening of the
licensing and zoning structures so
that all members of a neighborhood
can participate creatively. Taken
together, these should be the stan-
dards for evaluating the incremental
changes that occur in the feeling,
memory and infrastructure of the
community's physical space.
Our view combines what we know of
the attributes of flourishing cities and
natural systems. It includes the bio-’
region as an element of cultural iden-
tity and economic security, but also
scales down to neighborhoods for
local autonomy. Neighborhoods are
the basic unit of survival within cities and flexibility in
committing local resources is the key to adaptability. Said
differently, the restoration of cities is a cultural and
political process informed by ecology.
George Tukel: | grew up on suburban Long Island. My first
real exposure to city living came when I was working my
way through college in the late sixties. I drove a truck for
a friend of mine, and the warehouse I shipped out of was
in the South Bronx. If you drive through South Bronx to-
day, you ll find more open and green spaces than in just
about any other place in New York City. At the time that
I was working there, a good part of the Bronx was being
burnt to the ground by a community angry about the lack
of control it had over its financial well-being, the general
squalor of the neighborhood and the community's
destiny. After work I used to watch things burn. Though
often hectic, life during that time was never lived inside;
it was always hot and on the street. This included eating,
drinking, listening to music, socializing, flirting and pass-
ing along and embellishing the latest news. City life is
street life and the streets have to be alive for the city to
be alive. When you walk through gentrified neighbor-
hoods in New York now, there’s none of that juice. Pret-
tiness has replaced the magic of people.
Increasingly, newer buildings have replaced the previous
meeting places where things used to happen. Everyday
areas — the front stoop, small green spaces, the nestled
public square, the outdoor market — are all missing. When
meeting places are designed into new construction, they
seem incidental and are there only as part of some mitiga-
tion package that city planners and developers have work-
ed out to allow the developer to have more units. The
result is sterile and unsocial and it is not surprising that
people don’t partake, but find themselves living increas-
ingly isolated lives.
Architects and developers need to rein in their egos, put
their so-called ‘‘signature’’ buildings on the back burner
and start designing with neighborhood people, using suc-
cessful local precedents to support community.
Mike Helm: I grew up in the rural San Fernando Valley
_and then moved to suburban North Hollywood as a kid
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 ; 07
dL eee wd 77) > Jee ee ta Sree
J Sane. 20 EEE
Ne ONANIERIDOE A SRA SGAL SR AR AE SAA ERISE
| ee EERIE: SAR ANI A
Street fairs, like this one on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, strengthen community vitality by turning the street into
a form of ‘‘commons’’ — a meeting place for socializing. Mike Helm (right) sells the books he publishes.
/
in the fifties. I didn’t get a real feel for urban street life
until the late sixties when I lived in south Berkeley. In the
early seventies most of my time was spent writing and
selling poetry on Telegraph Avenue. A lot of people were
hustling a living directly from the street. A couple of hun-
dred people, including myself, still are. What I liked about
the scene then was that the sidewalks were alive and peo-
ple didn’t avoid each other with averted eyes. In fact, peo-
ple watching was one of the major enjoyable activities.
We actually took pleasure in checking each other out and,
because there were so many of us to share the load, even
gave away a little of our spare change. About the only
thing that was missing were public toilet facilities like they
have in some European cities. It continues to amaze me
that we have a whole country dedicated to the notion that
bodily functions somehow stop when people leave home
or aren't buying something in a store. It’s such a basic
human need, There are lots of older people and parents
with children who understandably don’t go anywhere
unless they know where the next bathroom is.
One of the things that made this sidewalk society safe
and interesting was the large number of street artists, food
vendors and pamphleteers hustling on the streets. There
were a lot of crazy people too, but in the larger stream
of humanity, they were, unlike now, somehow attended
to and absorbed. With all the little kiosks dotting the
sidewalks, people didn’t simply rush past. The sidewalks
weren't just the pedestrian equivalent of freeways, ex-
clusively designed to get foot traffic from Point A to Point
B. They were something to be savored and experienced.
The sidewalk ambience gave people an excuse to hang out,
listen to street musicians and even shop. For the vendors
b 08 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW. SPRING 1990
that had something interesting to sell, a little commerce
even ensued. Nobody was getting rich, but a lot of other-
wise unemployed people were getting by.
GT: Right, the streets worked as a commons. By com-
mons, I mean a physical area that no one person or group
controls for their immediate self-interest, but a place that
everyone benefits from. Streets are commons for cities in
much the same way that pastures for grazing were com-
mons in pastoral England and can only survive in much
the same way. In the pastoral example, people knew the
limits of grazing necessary to preserve the carrying capaci-
ty of the land and consequently the community. So all
exercised restraint in the number of livestock they graz-
ed. When one member broke the unspoken rule of
restraint (by increasing the size of their herd), they not
only destroyed the resource base, but damaged the mutual
trust upon which community living depends. This
dynamic is not unlike the one that occurs when a
developer buys up half a city block and puts a huge
building on a neighborhood street. Their own private
agenda destroys the commons that was previously the
streetscape.
I'm interested in the way that streets and buildings can
meet to create commons and allow individual participa-
tion. What kind of design forethought — even down to
the level of locating curb cuts and the dimensions of
sidewalks — encourages people to sit outside, or put flower
boxes on their windows?
MH: The loss of the street for pedestrians has been reen-
forced by modern planning processes. While I agree with
you about the limits of privatization, I also think that
Richard Nilsen
public spaces suffer from monocul-
tural policies. Parks are an example of
this. If it were up to me, I’d encour-
age much greater mixed use of park
space. I'd like to see a lot more small-
time vendors and street artists run-
ning their gigs on the sidewalks that
surround the grassy areas. People en-
joy and use parks more when some-
thing interesting is happening around
them.
I'd also like to see wider use of school
yards and transportation parking faci-
lities, too. As an example, a rapid
transit parking lot, unused on week-
ends, was ‘‘liberated’’ by direct action
in south Berkeley for use as a weekend flea market. After
some tense confrontation with bureaucrats, who only saw
themselves as transportation experts, the flea market was
legitimized and has subsequently evolved into a thriving
market commons.
—
One of the reasons people support flea markets is because
such primordial human traits as foraging and bargaining
are given sway there. People really don’t enjoy a pre-
packaged environment. They don't want to be just con-
sumers, they want to participate in and help shape the
economic process. You see this especially with recent im-
migrants from traditional, ‘‘underdeveloped’’ cultures.
They demand that you deal with them personally. They
want to fondle and caress what is around them — see if
the fruit is really ripe.
The way to deal with social ills is the way the rest of nature
does it, through dilution. Rather than congregating all
of our homeless in one or two parks, the way it is now
in most cities, marginally surviving people could be en-
ticed to disperse throughout a city. One of the things that
has given Telegraph Avenue and People’s Park a bad name
in Berkeley is that it has become a kind of mecca for
troubled people. Because other cities won't provide a place
for them, Berkeley has inherited their problems.
It is also important to remember that many homeless peo-
ple are capable of helping themselves. A lot of them
wouldn't even be out on the street now if it hadn't been
for all those urban redevelopment projects that destroyed
thousands of cheap hotel rooms and replaced them with
shopping malls, boutiques, and high-priced yuppie con-
dos. Many of the homeless are resourceful people. They
may not respond to a nine-to-five lifestyle, but will take
advantage of less restrictive opportunities. A more active
commercial life on sidewalks around city parks will pro-
vide incremental opportunities for homeless people to
wean themselves from helplessness and despair. Once
there are people regularly on the street, selling food and
crafts and wares, contact happens. A vendor, who is set-
ting up in the morning or packing up at night, can call
out to a street person and offer to pay for a little help.
Once some trust is established, that person might watch
the stand for a few moments in exchange for something
People enjoy
and use parks more
when something
interesting is
happening
around them.
>
to eat and so on. It is important to
remember that the street is their
‘ ‘home,’ 9
Compared to billion-dollar poverty
programs, this incremental approach
to the homeless problem may seem
hopeléssly naive. But it has the vir-
tue of starting with a simple one-on-
one level. Until we find a way to
create both affordable and convivial
housing, street people are here to
stay. While some of them might work
their way back up the economic lad-
der and become good burghers, most
won't. We might as well ease our
guilt, show more compassion and
make things more convivial for them. Most people on the
streets can’t deal with the major bureaucratic institutions
of business and government. If they could, they wouldn't
be on the streets.
For starters, we should provide simple, inexpensive public
bathrooms, street-corner urinals like they have in Europe,
and park shower facilities that are functional, airy and
safe to use. I'm not talking about building enclosed, con-
crete bunkers where you can shoot up or get mugged.
They could be as simple as a small cement pad surrounded
by a metal partition that is open at the top and bottom
so as to both air out and discourage loitering. These types
of facilities could be built and maintained out of the licen-
sing fees that a renewed sidewalk culture would generate.
Making the streets more convivial for bottom-dog peo-
ple would be more humane and less expensive than the
alternative of building, maintaining and staffing ever more
care-taking institutions like prisons and mental wards.
I think ecology has something to tell us about the nature
of a healthy’city. I’ve asked myself what comparisons
might be appropriate between natural ecosystems and
Richard Nilsen
Most of the homeless, like those shown here encamped in
Berkeley’s People’s Park, are resourceful people, scraping a
. living from the street.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i 09
cities. We know that when we clear-
cut an uneven-age, deciduous and
evergreen climax forest and replace
it with a monocultural, even-age
species like Douglas fir, we not only
change its arboreal characteristics,
but also drastically change the sur-
rounding plant and animal communi-
ty. Similarly, in urban areas, when we
bulldoze whole city blocks in the
name of urban redevelopment, we
destroy the mix of uneven-age buil-
dings and displace their inhabitants
in favor of a monoculture that sup-
ports a much more limited range of
human identity and activity. I’ve
come to see that there is a relationship between main-
‘taining a diversity of architecture and the kinds of peo-
ple that it attracts.
Though all humans belong to the same species, there is
some usefulness in seeing different kinds of people as dif-
ferent kinds of species for the purpose of an intelligent
urban planning that will leave all of our lives more in-
teresting, stable and diverse. There need to be affordable
places for bohemians, craftspeople, pensioners, sidewalk
peddlers, neighborhood junkyards and even ‘‘idlers’’ who
can become, in Jane Jacobs’ phrase, ‘‘the eyes on the
street’ that help control crime. The answer to crime is
not more cops, but more people with an interest and stake
in the street. We can justify this diversity not just on the
grounds of tolerance or some kind of noblesse oblige, but
even more so out of ecological necessity and a need for
liveliness. We know from ecology that those plant and
animal communities that are the most diverse are also the
most stable and enduring. The presence of diversity is
what informs and protects us, it keeps us from becoming
stupid. When we have nothing to compare our lives to,
we risk following a path that winds up being a dead end.
GI: The ecological connection is
crucial. We should admit how far-
reaching, complex and subtle that
connection really is. I believe that if
the self-image of a city could assi-
milate and locate itself within eco-
logical realities, either as fact or
ritual, perceptions would change
A good example of mixed-use park
space, the Union Square Green Market
in New York City encourages people
to interact freely with each other,
creating a convivial place to congre-
gate. George Tukel in foreground.
i i 0 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
manasa a
The answer to
crime is not
more cops, but
more people with
an interest and
stake in the street.
cecenne nem ttf) ene neneen
and new possibilities would emerge.
In 1981, after ten years had passed, I
returned to the South Bronx — this
time as a designer, paid by a large
non-profit organization — to work
with community groups putting va-
cant lots to use. Frankly, I had doubts
about how well it was going to go
because of the hard times there. But
I soon discovered unusual opportuni-
ty for urban restoration because of
the abundant open space, and the
neighborhood vitality that still ex-
isted, even with all the violence.
Households, city blocks and neigh-
borhoods were still working at scales
that were practical and personal.
Today the South Bronx and other inner-city neighbor-
hoods are at pivotal moments in their histories. Large
open spaces now exist. Development will occur and con-
struction is imminent. We face a juncture, and people
wonder if the failures of modern planning will be repeat-
ed or if we can shift toward restoration in the form of
urban eco-development.
Let me take you on a tour and contrast two types of
development. The first is current normal urban planning.
This is what you see driving through the South Bronx —
two suburban raised ranch-style houses sitting on a four-
to five-acre lot where six-story tenements once stood.
There are bars on the windows and garbage is beginning
to pile up in the immediate vicinity, where there are
burned-out shells of two-family houses. These newer
suburban homes could have been picked out of a subur-
ban catalogue. They are referred to as ‘‘living units,’’
sharply separated from the land they occupy, from the
neighborhood and from each other. Community groups
Mike Audas
Charlotte Street, South
Bronx, 1989. It’s easy to
look at these ranch-style
houses and declare them
inappropriate for an ur-
ban situation — especially
if you happened to grow up
in the suburban version.
In a city planner’s ideal
scheme they may be a poor
choice, but for the people
living in them they are a
huge improvement over
the decrepit tenements
they have replaced.
and city agencies are sponsoring these ‘‘experiments’’ in
pre-fab modular housing.
Contrast this with a turn toward eco-development. You
are sitting with members of a community block associa-
tion, discussing what local alternatives should be discuss-
ed with city officials for the open space surrounding their
block. The setting is typical — a three- or four-square-
block area, part of which is now open space, part usable
housing and commercial buildings, and the remainder
abandoned, burned-out buildings. Some observations
about eco-development emerge from the discussion:
e The number of people living within the restored area
should be at a density that allows for choices rather than
unilaterally defining them; in this case medium-density
housing interwoven with multi-functional public and
green spaces (as opposed to high-rise tenements and con-
crete retreats and vistas).
¢ Neighborhood members should be given the opportuni-
ty to provide for themselves. Vacant lots should be put
to use growing food. Tested and successful solar
technologies — rooftop domestic hot-water systems, at-
tached sunspaces and thermosiphoning air panels, for ex-
ample — should be fully utilized.
e Designs for the neighborhood should incorporate
lessons learned from watching healthy natural systems
evolve. For example: is the total biomass increasing (more
space dedicated to gardens, orchards, parks and green
space)? Are material cycles becoming more closed (organic
material composted for gardens on a community-wide
basis)? Can we have more production from smaller im-
puts of energy (conservation of energy and its efficient
use)?
The whole premise urban restoration as eco-development
is based on is that natural systems are easily understand-
able and make the best place from which to start. People
Carlos Ortiz
intuitively respond to them, probably because they work
in such an economical and elegant manner.
MH: Getting involved in neighborhood planning and poli-
tics has also shaped my ideas about what a healthy ur-
ban ecosystem might look like. Five years ago my family
and I moved to the ‘‘M’’ Zone in west Berkeley, which
historically has allowed for mixed manufacturing, com-
mercial and residential uses. We bought an inexpensive
fixer-upper house that was built in the 1920s and watch-
ed as real estate values skyrocketed. Simultaneously, we
experienced increased pressure from both proponents of
urban redevelopment and commercial interests to redefine
our neighborhood in ways that would displace the cur-
rent mix of buildings and people.
One of the things our neighborhood association has
fought for, with some success, is to require the city and
developers to incorporate older structures, and the peo-
ple working and living in them, into their plans.
My experience in M Zone politics has also made me ques-
tion the monocultural zoning policies that characterize
most city planning. A tremendous amount of human in-
itiative is thwarted by single-use zoning. It is also expen-
sive and wasteful to separate where we live from where
we work. There are millions of self-employed urban peo-
ple who are forced, by single-use zoning policies, into pay-
ing double mortgages and rents in order to run their
businesses and maintain their homes. Keeping these two
activities isolated from each other is also a major con-
tributor to pollution and traffic congestion. Future urban
planning should encourage mixed-use zoning that com-
bines manufacturing, commercial and residential dimen-
sions. We don’t need more expensive highways and
bridges. They will only foster more pollution, waste more
energy and time driving on ‘‘freeways.'’ What we need
is to encourage live/work communities that cut out com-
.mutes and integrate all members of society. m
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i A i
secretin ame rica
Shading Our Cities
If you are an urban resident involved with
trees or wanting to be, this is a useful
and comprehensive book. Over forty
contributors cover everything from keep-
ing city trees healthy to strategies for
community involvement with urban forests.
Resources like books, periodicals and
helpful organizations are also included.
—Richard Nilsen
Grouping urban trees into blocks rather
than rows provides room for root growth,
as well as beauty and focus in a courtyard.
*
One of the earliest and certainly one of
the most inspiring greenways is in Denver,
Colorado. The city was, like many others,
built alongside a river — in this case the
South Platte. As the city grew, the river
became a dividing line between the rich
and poor sides of town, and a sewer for
both. So things stood for a century ona
river once described as too thick to drink,
too thin to plow. Then in 1965 a devastating
flood swept through Denver, sending the
Platte over its banks and foul water through-
out the city. The cost of damage was a third
of a billion dollars. Everybody said some-
thing should be done. In 1973, another
flood hit. An engineering report was pre-
pared: the price tag for fixing up the river
would be $630 million.
At that point, Denver had $1.9 million to
use on the river. What to do? The answer -
was to call in Joe Shoemaker, hard-nosed
Republican state legislator, a lawyer and
ex-navy man, who, as he says of himself,
doesn’t take any crap from anybody. His
idea was, instead of trying to pass a $630
million bond for flood control, which
would probably be impossible anyway,
why not set up a foundation and “‘return
the river to the people’ — not as a rip-
rapped channel, but as a greenway.
And so it is today. Joe Shoemaker and a
Shading
Our
Cities
Gary Moll and
Sara Ebenreck,
Editors
1989; 333 pp.
$19.95 ($21.95 postpaid) from
Island Press, Star Route 1/Box 7,
Covelo, CA 95428; 800/828-1302
(or Whole Earth Access).
cadre of devoted young colleagues (now
including his own son, also a state legis-
lator) created the Platte River Greenway
from one end of the city to the other (and
nowadays, beyond) by assembling a foun-
dation board of directors made up of
powerful figures who might have been
enemies, by resolutely avoiding the acces-
sion of any government trappings whatever
(‘‘to have no power is to have all power,”
says Shoemaker), and by piecing together
from scores of public and private sources
some $15 million to do the job. The result
is a greenway that provides 450 acres of
riverside parks, forty miles of intercon-
nected hiking and biking routes, and a river
that brings the city together rather than
dividing it.
A Green City Program
Urban sustainability is no ecological
sideshow. In fact, with 75 percent of the
population of the United States living in
urban areas, it’s fair to say it’s the main
attraction. This book skips the Cassandra-
on-the-tightrope portion of the show {in
which we learn about the ecological
crimes of industrial society) and moves
right into the grand finale: hope for the
future based on practical sustainable living
practices — a Green City program.
Green City was generated from the pro-
ceedings of a series of San Francisco
Bay Area meetings on moving the region
toward self-reliance, but it serves as a
design model for any urban area. The
diversity and experience of the participants
— who ranged from governmental agen-
cy officials to the director of Golden
Gate Park to a vast assortment of envi-
ronmental and community activists — is
nicely reflected in the accessible tone
and usetul structure.of the book. Each
section (on urban wild habitat, diversified
transportation, renewable energy, small
business, and.more) outlines both short-
and long-term action proposals and
includes a visionary fable of life in the
new ‘’Green City.’’ Anyone interested in
the flourishing of cities — backyard
gardeners, city council members, com-
munity activists, or high-school students,
for example — might want a copy of this
book. Green cities could turn out to
be the greatest show on earth.
—Jeanne Carstensen
I : 2 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW. SPRING 1990
Recycling and reuse in Green City:
what's possible?
In Green City, the crude garbage cans of
the 1980s are a thing of the past. In their
place are sophisticated containers, each
with several compartments: for tin, glass,
cardboard, newspaper, a couple of grades
of paper and miscellany. Aluminum cans
have practically vanished, in the wake of
deposit legislation that made it more eco-
nomical to supply beverages in refillable
bottles; most glass is reused because of
those laws. The primitive garbage trucks
of the past have been replaced by more
elegant models with multiple compartments
to match those on the household recycling
containers. Household kitchen scraps are
set out separately and picked up by a
fellow who lives on the block. He collects
A Green City Program
Peter Berg, Beryl Magilavy,
and Seth Zuckerman. 1989; 70 pp.
$7 postpaid from Planet Drum
Foundation, P. O. Box 31251, San
Francisco, CA 94131; 415/285-6556
(or Whole Earth Access).
the stuff in a hand-drawn wagon. Some of
it he feeds to his chickens; the rest he com-
posts (along with the chicken manure) in
bins in the community garden. For these
services he draws a small stipend from the
city, which pays him out of the disposal
fees from the block. The neighbors then
use the compost on their vegetable plots,
and enjoy the benefit of the rich humus
without the task of shoveling their kitchen
scraps in with straw and soil.
Global Releaf
The venerable American Forestry Asso-
ciation has caught up with the times with
a national tree-planting program tied to
the threat of global warming and called
Global Releaf. They have several hand-
books available, all designed to assist
community tree-planting groups. One of
their goals is to help get one million new
trees growing on private land in U.S.
cities by 1992. —Richard Nilsen
Global Releaf
Information free from The American
Forestry Association, P. O. Box 2000,
Washington, DC 20013;
202/667-3300.
@ Ps
Among the titles offered:
Tree Care Handbook
Save Our Urban Trees
Gypsy Moth Handbook
Forest Effects of Air Pollution
Global Releaf Brochures
Paul F. Housel
‘hoe ° ©
The First Interstate Plaza in Seattle. This well-used street-level
plaza includes pedestrian circulation, seating, plants, and a sunny
exposure. In good weather, the plaza is used for a variety of
events. This plaza was designed well from the start, but it can
stand as inspiration — the urban world is full of empty, wind-
swept plazas and sidewalks (many orphans of the sixties) waiting
to be filled up with uses which can create a richer and more
human environment.
David Sucher is a Seattle real estate developer who is helping his city discover
that in order to change the urban scene, the place to start is with the urban
mind-set; and that for doing either one, praise works better than criticism.
. —Richard Nilsen
BY DAVID SUCHER
VER the last couple of
years, I’ve helped to establish an ur-
ban planning process in Seattle call-
ed the Urban Designs That Work
Awards. Now in its third year, the
program spotlights those buildings/
spaces or parts of buildings/spaces
which ‘‘work”’ and are worthy of
recognition and emulation. The Seat-
tle Design Commission — a public
body — oversees the selection of suc-
cessful projects and then hosts a
public forum to present awards to
project developers and architects.
A key element here is public discus-
sion of what makes the project work.
Usually, an architectural award con-
sists of a plaque and a picture in a
magazine, with no discussion of what
is going on in the building. Tradi-
tional awards function more as
marketing tools for architects and
builders than as learning tools for the
public.
My hope is that Urban Designs That
Work will become an environmental
education process. We need to
become aware of our built environ-
ment, understand what is good about
it and repeat those details which are
successful. My own long-term goal
for this process is to create a positive
feedback loop that encourages suc-
cessful urban design.
An architect once said: ‘There are
truths about floorplans.’ There are
also truths about cityscapes. We are
all really copycats at heart. It’s easier
and safer that way. Why should we
reinvent the wheel with every effort?
In our daily lives we learn to sort out
what works from what doesn’t work.
We learn to repeat successful behavior
and discard the failures. Unfortunate-
ly there is an ongoing myth of the
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 5 I 3
Paul Hernandez, Seattle Design Commission
‘‘architect as artist,’ fighting against
bourgeois conventionality. The pro-
blem with this attitude is that it puts
too much emphasis on self-expression
and novelty rather than on designs
that work well.
Great cities come not from great
buildings but from great zoning
codes. Great work can come from
tight limits as easily as from freedom,
and is often a variation on a theme.
‘Design flexibility’’ and ‘‘innovative
design’’ can be the enemies of urban
architecture because they encourage
builders and designers to do
something new just so that they can
attract professional attention. A tru-
ly innovative approach would be to
search through the relevant environ-
ment, pick out specific buildings that
were successful by community stand-
ards, and repeat them. But the pre-
vailing image of the architect as artist
— per Ayn Rand — interferes.
One of the hot political issues Seat-
tle has struggled with over the last few
years is how to design multi-family
(apartment and condominium) struc-
tures. In the attempt to hammer out
regulations, the City assembled a
group of developers and neighbor-
hood activists to act as a sounding
board, and as a real estate develop-
er, I became involved. We must have
| j 4 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
met 20 times to go over draft language
on everything from the protection of
wildlife to shadow impacts.
The neighborhood people kept talk-
ing about ‘‘excessive height, bulk and
scale.’ I wondered what that really
meant. Or rather, | wondered what
- kind of structures would satisfy them
and I realized that in none of our
discussions did we ever speak of
specific buildings, either pro or con.
It was all very abstract. No one ever
said: ‘‘That new building on XYZ
Street in my neighborhood is truly
horrible’ or ‘I wouldn't mind living
near a building like the one at the cor-
ner of A and B Avenues.’ Through all
those meetings, we never created a
visual frame of reference, never had
models to which we could refer. —
I was never sure if the anti-apartment
feelings were a principled reaction to
ugliness/inappropriate design, or an
unprincipled desire to keep possibly
lower-income renters away from
single-family neighborhoods. I
wondered if there could be any apart-
ment building which would be good
enough to please the neighbors. Since
we never spoke in terms of specific
buildings, it was impossible to know.
As I sat there, I realized how useful
it would be if we could talk about
a
The espresso bar in
front of Nordstrom’s
clothing store. What
had been an ‘‘empty
space’’ under a mar-
quee is now a place
to relax, with espres-
so cart, tables, and
chairs. Seattle’s aver-
age of 162 rainy days
per year make over-
head cover essential
to relaxation.
buildings and details of buildings that
we liked or didn’t like. It would first
be necessary to recognize these dif-
ferences, and my Awards scheme
seemed like a way to do this. Since I
had worked for the Seattle city
government earlier in my life and had
also dealt with the bureaucrats on a
regular basis because I develop real
estate, I approached individuals
whom I thought might be receptive.
There was polite interest and sym-
pathy, but no action,
Soon thereafter a local architects’
group, Arcade & Blueprint, held its
annual show — Call For New Work
— at which 2’ x 3’ panels displaying
new projects were on display. I made
up a panel outlining my ideas for the
Awards. To add symbolic significance
and visual interest, I attached a large
county-fair blue ribbon to the post-
er. It was accepted and hung and
prompted some discussion at the
event, but again no action.
A couple of months later, I produced
a miniature version of the poster and
sent one to the Mayor and each of the
nine council-persons. I sent posters to
the press too, and one local colum-
nist thought it was a great notion and
devoted a glowing column to it. That
helped a lot because it gave external
validation to the idea. Simultaneous-
Baia
ly, I went to talk to a friend at the
Seattle Design Commission. She lik-
ed the idea, talked it up to the rest
of her group and they asked for $500
from the City Council to pay for the
costs of the event.
The Design Commission selected five
sites in downtown Seattle which were
worthy of recognition. An out-of-
town speaker was invited. (they are
always smarter if they’re from out-of-
town, you know) and the first awards
were given out in August, 1988. We
got good press, the public respond-
ed favorably, and the politicians were
delighted.
In the long run, The Urban Designs
That Work Awards should become an
ongoing civic process to spotlight
what people like and to then feed that
back into the zoning code. It should
work within the guts of the building
regulation process to develop com-
mon frames of reference using real
buildings. When a developer applies
for a permit, both the City and the
neighborhood could engage in
discussion with reference to real
buildings: ‘‘that one we like’’; “‘that
one was not quite so popular.” Right
now developers are working in a
vacuum — the land-use code says one
thing, but the City also has ‘‘en-
vironmental policy’’ hoops to jump
through, and those are the real reg-
ulations. It’s very confusing and of
Fred Anhalt was a Seattle
builder in the 1920s, when set-
backs from the property line
were not required. Because of
current code restrictions, this
handsome Anhalt apartment
building could not be built in
Seattle today, because the
walls, visible on the left side
of the photo, come right up to
the sidewalk.
David Sucher
no benefit to anyone, because there
are no clear models.
As an aside, I’ve thought it curious
that one could not build an ‘‘Anhalt’’
apartment building in Seattle today.
Fred Anhalt was a builder of very
lovely Seattle apartments in the late
twenties and thirties. They are still
very popular, and command good
rents. They fit in very well with their
neighborhoods. Yet you couldn't
build one today because many of
them come right up to the sidewalk,
and that’s not allowed. Even though
these buildings “‘work,’’ some of their
most critical elements violate the cur-
rent rules.
Perhaps we ought to have a process
in which successful building types are
pre-approved. You buy a 60’ x 120’
lot, and you go downtown, and
they've got a catalog of basic design
concepts which would be acceptable
for that type of lot in that
neighborhood. By starting with one
of these designs, developers have
some security that their proposals will
be approved, and the public has some
guarantee it won't have to do battle
against another eyesore. This would
not be cheap, of course, but then
neither is the current appeals process,
or lawsuits after the fact. These de-
signs would be Seattle “‘standards”’
(for Seattle only, of course) to which
we could refer. It would be a visual
vocabulary — perhaps a shorthand
for expressing what’s considered
good behavior in a building.
The gist of the Urban Designs That
Work is that now the public, the
building professions and the govern-
ment have a way to recognize good
things about buildings and to praise
and explain why they are good — a
way to spotlight those elements of our
Seattle environment which are wor- .
thy of applause and emulation.
One of the local chapters of the AIA
(American Institute of Architects) has
an ‘‘Orchids & Onions’’ program;
the orchids are fine, but it’s counter-
productive to point out in public
where someone has made a mistake
if you want to influence their future
behavior. I believe that we should ac-
centuate the positive. For the
foreseeable future, the vast majority
of decisions about the shape of the
built environment will be made by
private parties with only nominal
regulation. '
Building is an emotional process. It’s
also a very public process. It takes
nerve and ego to put oneself on the
public display inherent in putting up
a structure. It makes no sense to hold
up the “‘onions’’ to public ridicule
because the long term strategy must
_ be to sensitize builders, not to close
off their hearts to designs which con-
tribute to their communities. #
OISONING your neighbors’ air or
water is just not the neighborly
' thing to do. Nor, for that matter,
. is stockpiling so much deadly
- poison that the slip of a match or
'; a tiny valve leak could wipe out
the entire neighborhood.
Yet somehow, American busi-
nesses have forgotten their good manners. They have
fallen back on what government regulators will let them
get away with — regardless of whether a common per-
son’s sense of decency would be offended.
Part of the reason some businesses have gotten away with
this rude behavior for so long is that, until now, the public
hasn't had the information needed to recognize this of-
fensive behavior. Now this has changed. The federal Com-
munity Right-to-Know law enacted in 1986 has made the
public aware that as much as 22 billion pounds of toxic
chemicals are emitted to our air, water and land each year.
These are chemicals that cause cancer and birth defects,
and which attack virtually every organ system in the
human body. This new law enables citizens to pinpoint
geographically thousands of companies that are using and
storing toxic materials.
The Right-to-Know law discloses the identities and types
org ay io
> th, Nyt np ene he
Va cucees
Sanford J. Lewis is an environmental attorney in Acton, Massachu-
setts, who represents community and environmental organizations,
and consults to community groups who want to act as citizen reg-
ulators. His clients include the National Toxics Campaign (see p.
119). An earlier version of this article appeared in the journal New
Solutions. —Richard Nilsen
j i 6 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
aa Mo car ON aa i al A Rg RISD SRBC SS Sl) AE Se Ep ee ee he) PISMO eh eet eg
of emissions from the major toxics users and polluters.
The information is readily available in the ‘‘Toxic Release
Inventory’ available through regional offices of the EPA.
Or any citizen with a computer and modem can dial up
this same data through a new on-line database operated
by the National Library of Medicine (see p. 120).
Through these data disclosures, people are coming to
realize that companies just down the block may be ma-
jor ‘‘chemical abusers.’ One result is that America’s
businesses are being reschooled by their neighbors as to
what it really means to be a good neighbor. With the
Right-to-Know information in hand, it becomes painful-
ly obvious that our environmental laws and agencies are
far from adequate to protect communities from unneigh-
borly behavior by local businesses.
If the government isn’t protecting us, what’s to be done?
Making governments accountable is part of the picture.
Citizens can pressure their governments to do a better job
of enforcement and to clean up local offenders. But in
this time of shrunken government resources, an alternative
strategy that is closer to home, and often more effective,
is taking hold.
Citizens are going directly to local businesses and chal-
lenging their prerogatives to poison the air or water, and
to put lives at risk. Even if the offending company’s be-
havior is perfectly legal — condoned by bureaucrats in the
State House or the White House — it just isn’t neighbor-
ly. These ‘‘citizen regulators’’ have concluded that the
time has come to demand a change. Ordinary citizens are
beginning to knock on the polluters’ doors. When those
doors open, company executives are discovering that their
neighbors are armed with common sense, data and ex-
pertise, and an arsenal of persuasion strategies.
For example, in Berlin, New Jersey, a group of residents
known as the Coalition Against Toxics began an investi-
gation after fishkills in nearby lakes. Members wondered
if chemical discharges by the nearby Dynasill Company
might have caused the fishkills. Dynasill produces glass
for high-tech applications, Lp eUine laser and aerospace
uses.
In May 1988, with the company’s permission, the citizens
conducted their own inspection of Dynasill, with an in-
dustrial hygienist whose services were provided by the Na-
tional Toxics Campaign. While it became apparent that
the company had not caused any fishkills, at least recently,
a number of other hazards were identified. A report pre-
pared by the hygienist after the tour made a number of
recommendations for improving the facility’s chemical
safety. For instance, the report recommended that the
company complete its diking around storage tanks con-
taining silicon tetrachloride, which, when exposed to
water, can create heat and hydrochloric acid. It recom-
mended installing showers and eye-wash stations. And
it suggested training employees to be a company fire
brigade.
Within one month of receiving the inspection report, the
company implemented all of the recommendations that
ee oe ee
a
ee a ee ee ee ee ee
the group had made. In light of the good sense of the
recommendations, this was clearly the neighborly thing
to do.
Good-neighbor strategies do not always achieve such easy
victories or instantaneous results. For instance, citizen
regulators in Quinsigamond Village, a densely populated
area in Worcester, Massachusetts, engaged in a year-long
fight with the Lewcott Company.
These citizens were outraged by years of odorous pollu-
tion from the company, which applies resiri coating to
fabric. Government regulators seemed complacent —
more intent on protecting the company’s economic well-
being than on protecting local residents’ health. Yet the
residents believed that the plant’s emissions were the
source of many illnesses in their neighborhood.
At the outset, these Worcester citizens met in one an-
other’s living rooms, and pored over the available infor-
mation on the company’s chemical usage patterns. They
formed a new organization, the Quinsigamond Village
Health Awareness Group (QVHAG).
Soon they launched an all-out campaign, declaring to the
company and the community that from then on Lewcott
would have to answer directly to its neighbors. The grow-
ing membership of QVHAG picketed the company. They
_inspected the company together with the National Tox-
ics Campaign, and published an inspection report. They
held press conferences. They challenged the company’s
_ flammables-storage permit, and won severe restrictions
on the permit’s duration. They pressed the state envi-
ronmental agency to assess penalties for the firm's pol-
lution, They lined a main street of Worcester with signs
expressing their anger with the company’s odorous beha-
vior, such as ‘‘DON’T RUIN OUR SUMMER AGAIN"
and even ‘‘LEWCOTT GET OUT" ’. They investigated the
company’s directors, and the environmental records of
‘related companies.
op Members of the
Coalition Against
Toxics of Berlin,
o.2 New Jersey on an™ »
inspection tour
.of the Dynasill
~ Company plant in
. their community.
As a result of this flurry of action, Lewcott executives
reluctantly agreed to meet with the residents. A series of
formal negotiating sessions followed. The residents nego-
tiated with the company point by point.
Changes in the plant managers’ thinking began to emerge.
Company executives began to realize that given the proc-
esses that their plant was engaged in and the large
amounts of flammable materials used, their facility was
simply too close to people’s homes to ever be considered
a good neighbor. They concluded that the most econom-
ical and effective means of becoming a good neighbor.was
to consolidate their Worcester plant and another Lewcott
facility under one roof, with a new, more effective set of
pollution controls.
A surprising and precedent-setting agreement resulted.
The company actually committed, in a legally binding
contract with QVHAG members, to the relocation of all
of their operations a few miles away over a period of a
year and a half. For the interim period during which they
would remain in the neighborhood, they agreed to allow
the citizens a right to inspect the facility. They also agreed
to enforcement of their commitments — through a bind-
ing arbitration clause and designated penalties for any
violations. In return, the citizens agreed to take down
their signs and to ease up on their multifaceted campaign
against the company. A smooth transition resulted, and
a local environmental war came to an end.
There are dozens of other examples of local good-neighbor
campaigns. Citizens in various communities are demand-
ing that neighboring companies:
e Study and reduce toxic chemical usage and waste
generation;
e Provide technical assistance to residents for review of
a firm's activities;
e Allow residents the right to inspect factories
periodically;
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 f j 7
Richard Youngstrom
e Establish a comprehensive chemical-accident preven-
tion program utilizing the advanced measures that the
citizens’ own experts identify; or
e Grant the citizens a right, along with workers in the
plant, to ongoing participation in a company health
and safety committee handling management decisions
about toxics.
These strategies are proving most effective in dealing with
small- and medium-size corporations. They are also be-
ing employed at big companies like Chevron in Richmond,
California, and Exxon in Baytown, Texas. Concessions
from these mammoth polluters have been harder to win.
Tie GENIUS of the citizen-regulator approach is that
it places those with the biggest stake in safety at the front
lines of the regulatory process. What citizens can see for
themselves, through direct inspections with their own ex-
eo
CITIZENS CLEARINGHOUSE FOR
HAZARDOUS WASTE
P.O. Box 926, Arlington, VA 22216;
703/276-7070
Assistance to grassroots action groups.
Publishes newsletter ($25/4 issues yr.)
containing the best concise roundup of
victories and fights at the grassroots.
The staff of CCHW are experts at cutting
through techno-jargon and bureacratic
excuses. Their message is a simple one:
ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE!
CLEAN WATER ACTION
317 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washing-
ton, DC 20003; 202/547-1196
Providing technical and organizing
assistance to groups involved in fighting
incinerators, cleaning up dumps and
protecting groundwater. Also leading
providers of strategy and support to
citizens’ efforts to inform the public on
electoral candidates’ environmental
positions.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
FOUNDATION
P. O. Box 3541, Princeton, NJ 08543-
3541; 609/683-0707
i I 8 "WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
A SHort List Of RESOURCE ORGANIZATIONS For Grassroots ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS
Provides weekly newsletter and on-line
database for grassroots activists on
solid-waste and hazardous-waste issues.
(See RACHEL, p. 121.)
GREENPEACE USA
1436 U Street NW, Washington, DC
20009; 202/462-1177
The largest national grassroots-based
group fighting toxics and solid-waste
abuses, and also to conserve and re-
store the natural environment. Hard-
hitting organizing and direct-action
campaigns. A major international force
that is changing the way the world
views environmental issues.
INSTITUTE FOR LOCAL SELF-RELIANCE
2425 18th Street NW, Washington, DC
20009; 202/232-4108 |
An excellent resource for local activists
and local government on the economics
and technical ins and outs of solid waste.
NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST THE
MISUSE OF PESTICIDES (NCAMP)
530 7th Street SE, Washington, DC
20003; 202/543-5450
Technical assistance to groups and in-
dividuals fighting abuses of pesticides.
_~ This masonry wail |
at the Dynasill
plant in New
Jersey is built to
contain any leak
or rupture of the
. tank inside. Con-
tainment walls
like this one were
added by the
company after
Coalition mem-
ON a
NATIONAL TOXICS CAMPAIGN
37 Temple Pl. 4th Floor, Boston, MA
02111; 617/482-1477 -
One of the most ambitious and far-
reaching grassroots action and support
groups in the world. Currently has 15
offices across the country. (See review,
next page.)
US PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH
GROUP (PIRG)
215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washing-
ton, DC 20036; 202/546-9707
A great source of information on toxics
and solid-waste issues. Engaged in na-
tional and statewide legislative fights.
Offices of affiliated PIRGs are located
in numerous states.
WORK ON WASTE
82 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617
Publishes the weekly newsletter on solid-
waste issues for grassroots activists. The
founder, Professor Paul Connett of St.
Lawrence University, is one of the most
eloquent speakers in the nation on the
need to shift to a nonwasteful economy.
—Sanford Lewis
—— ee
ie
a il
—
pert consultants, can provide information far more reli-
able and extensive than what a government inspector
might report to them.
Citizen regulators should not think that they need to
become experts themselves to make this strategy work.
In fact, in almost all of the campaigns for good-neigh-
bor agreements, the neighbors who are pressing the com-
panies are typical working people, not ‘‘experts’’ at all.
The Lewcott campaign in Massachusetts was led by Cin-
dy Phillips, a high-school gym teacher. The members of
- QVHAG include a school-bus driver, a postman, a police
officer, factory workers and many other long-time resi-
dents of the blue-collar Quinsigamond Village neighbor-
hood. The good-neighbor strategy engages ordinary peo-
ple in common-sense approaches to secure their rights
to community safety, sound neighborhood etiquette, and
environmental justice.
Experience has shown that organized local citizens have
as much, if not more, ability than government agencies
to move local corporations to act. If a local company does
not willingly negotiate, citizen regulators must be prepared
to wage a campaign to bring the company to the bargain-
ing table, by organizing, picketing, legal strategies, or
generating unfavorable media publicity.
Citizen regulators often turn to government regulators for
assistance. But instead of filing complaints only with a
single environmental agency, the citizens may deploy
dozens of agencies in fields as remote as zoning, bank-
ing and insurance toward their goal of pressuring a com-
pany to negotiate. .
At its best, the good-neighbor strategy can bring an end
to human isolation and despair. In order to take on a local
polluter, many citizens who have never considered them-
selves to be activists before need to alter their attitudes
and lifestyles. They need to be empowered, much as the
nonsmoker who for the first time gains the courage to tell
the cigarette smoker, *'Yes, I do mind if you smoke!’’ Some
citizen regulators must tear themselves away from their
TVs, and get out and meet other residents with similar
concerns. In short, they have to breathe new life into the
notions of neighborhood and community by engaging in
old-style civic activism.
Citizen regulators also discover that the typical ‘‘us-versus-
them’ lines are not drawn as they might at first believe.
Natural allies are often situated within the factory gates,
where workers are exposed to the same toxic chemicals
that the community is concerned about. As the Dynasill
example shows, many safety measures to protect the com-
munity will also help protect workers. Citizens will typi-
cally benefit by working with, not against, the unions or
other representatives of workers.
From the other side of the picture, the isolation and se-
curity that many corporate executives have enjoyed until
now is also being brought to an end by this good-neigh-
bor strategy: Many company executives have mistakenly
come to believe that the law grants them an absolute right
to expose their neighbors to deadly pollutants. The
public’s expanded right to know is truly a first step toward
stripping away the armor that protects polluters from
being called on the carpet by their neighbors.
It no longer suffices for a company to ask bureaucrats far
off in Washington, D.C., or their state capital for a seal
of approval to poison local air or water. Across America,
citizens are increasingly saying, ‘‘Let us be the final judge
as to whether you are a good neighbor.’ #
National Toxics
Campaign
The National Toxics Campaign provides
leadership, coordination and ammunition
to grassroots toxics activists across the
nation. NTC and its research arm, the
National Toxics Campaign Fund, also
bring expert organizational and technical
help to grassroots groups.
One of the early projects of NTC was to
coordinate grassroots groups to press
Congress for a strong nationwide haz-
ardous-waste-site cleanup law. Working
with people at hundreds of dumpsites
across the country, they collected more
than two million signatures in support of
Superfund, They also orchestrated a
‘Superdrive for Superfund,’’ which fea-
tured a caravan of trucks collecting
water and soil samples from 200 toxic
sites around the country. The samples
were delivered to the Capitol steps —
to emphasize the need for stronger
legislation.
The Superfund law was an important first
step. While cleaning up the past sites is
a major job, America has not yet accom-
plished the prevention measures that are
needed fo stop the poisoning of its people
and environment. So NIC has forged
ahead with a multifaceted effort to pre-
vent toxic hazards in all of their forms:
& NIC is providing tools to grassroots
activists who are demanding that local
polluters provide the Right to Know,
the Right to Inspect and the Right to
Negotiate.
& NIC launched a campaign to per-
suade grocers to end the sale of fresh
produce with cancer-causing pesticides
by 1995. As of this writing, more than a
thousand grocers had signed up, in-
cluding five major food chains.
B NTC is circulating and providing sup-
port for model state policies to reduce
the use of toxic chemicals and the pro-
duction of hazardous wastes. legislative
versions of the policies have been en-
acted in two states, and filed in about
ten others.
b NTC publishes an excellent news-
letter, Toxic Times. *
& The platform in the NTC report
Shadow on the Land brought family-
farm organizations and environmental
and consumer activists (including Green-
peace and Ralph Nader) together for
the first time around a joint strategy to
curtail the use of dangerous farm chem-
icals and keep family farmers on the land.
& During 1989, the organization
established the first public-interest envi-
ronmental laboratory. The lab provides
truly independent testing for citizen ac-
tivists who want to know the chemical
ingredients of water, air, soil, sludges,
wastes and tissues. | —Sanford lewis
National Toxics Campaign
37 Temple Pl. 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02111;
617/482-1477.
Membership in NTC is $25 for individuals
and $100 for organizations. Organiza-
tional membership includes discount prices
on lab services and publications.
*$15/year (4 issues) to NTC members.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 i | 9
BY PHILIP WEXLER
OU take a walk around your neighborhood and no-
tice the ever-present chemical plant with its stacks pump-
ing foul-smelling fumes into the atmosphere and spilling
green liquid into the river. You wonder: What toxic chem-
icals are being released in my community? Which com-
panies are responsible? Where are they transferring their
toxic waste? How can I find out about the health effects
of these chemicals on my family? Can they cause cancer
or interfere with my wife’s capacity to bear children?
Answers to such questions and others may be found by
consulting an array of computerized databases, collec-
tively known as MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis
and Retrieval System), available through the National
Library of Medicine (NLM) in Bethesda, Maryland.
NLM'’s Toxicology Information Program has been pro-
viding publicly available data about toxic chemicals and
their hazards for over twenty years. In this time, its com-
puter files have expanded greatly in number, size, and
scope. Whereas this information has always been and con-
tinues to be of great interest to scientists and researchers,
a greater effort is being made to inform concerned citi-
zens that they, too, can have access to this enormous store
of information at a.very reasonable cost. Computer files
available through MEDLARS'’ innovative Toxicology Data
Network (TOXNET) have been a boon to individuals
wanting to find out more about hazardous chemicals.
The Toxic Chemicals Release Inventory (TRI) is one of the
newest of these TOXNET files. This file contains data on
the estimated releases of toxic chemicals to the air, water,
or land, as well as amounts transferred to waste sites. In
compliance with the law, industrial facilities around the
country are required to report this information to the
Environmental Protection Agency, which in turn provides
it to NLM, the public access point for this information
on computer. This file helps fulfill the U.S. Congress's
wish to insure the public’s right to know about environ-
mental toxic chemicals.
TRI offers very flexible searching. You may use the file
‘to help determine how many pounds of chlorine, for ex-
ample, have been released to the air in your zip code, or
in your county, city, or state, and what facility has releas-
ed the greatest amount for any given year. Alternately,
you might choose to search on a company name, say ABC
Chemical Products, and determine what substances they
are releasing in your area, or nationwide. Listed with each
company is a public contact name and phone number,
should you need more information about the release. TRI
can also be used if you want to find out how many pounds
of certain hazardous chemicals manufactured or used
outside your state are subsequently shipped into your state
for disposal. These are but a few of the types of questions
TRI is designed to answer.
TRI’s versatility is enhanced through a statistical feature
which allows you to perform a variety of functions such
as adding numbers and calculating means, medians, max-
imums and standard deviations. One might also perform
‘‘ranging’’ to determine, for instance, what states release
more than one million pounds of acetone into the air. In
the near future, a ‘‘sort’’ capability will be implemented,
allowing you to sort your results alphabetically or numer-
ically. You might, for example, choose to sort the records
you have retrieved alphabetically by company name.
Every database has its limitations. As helpful as the TRI
data is, it contains only rather specific information related
to chemical releases and transfers to waste sites. It does
not contain information on the health effects of, or human
exposure to, these chemicals. However, users of TRI are
automatically authorized access to the entire family of
NLM files, many of which do list such information and
thereby supplement TRI.
The Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), for ex-
ample, covers chemical toxicity, as well as emergency
handling procedures, environmental fate, human ex-
posure, detection methods, and regulatory requirements.
A large part of the data in this 4,200-chemical file has been
peer-reviewed by expert toxicologists and other scientists.
The Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances
(RTECS) is another TOXNET file of some 100,000 chem-
icals, covering acute and chronic effects, skin and eye ir-
ritation, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and reproductive
Here is a brief tour through a portion of the alphabet soup simmering in Bethesda, Maryland, at the National Library of Medicine,
the largest bio-medical library in the world. The acronyms are daunting but the information stored bere can be as specific as your
own back yard, and is available via computer. This is partly a result of the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster, which thus far bas killed
over 3,000 people. The U.S. Congress responded to the question ‘‘Could THAT happen here?’’ with the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act in 1986, which not only established the Toxic Release Inventory described here, but mandated that the
information be made available by computer through telecommunications.
Philip Wexler is a part of the soup, working in the bps Information Program at Bethesda. He is the author of Information
Resources in Toxicology.
| 20 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
—Richard Nilsen
ee e————
~~ ee yr Te
rer a. S ~~ oe es,
consequences. TOXNET also includes files specifically
dedicated to the areas of carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, and
teratogenesis. Outside of TOXNET, the NLM’s TOXLINE
group of databases contains references, often with sum-
maries, to journal articles dealing with hazardous chem-
icals and other areas of toxicology and environmental
health.
Individuals may request searches on TRI and other NLM
files by contacting any one of thousands of health science
libraries and information centers throughout the coun-
try. Information on an online search facility in your com-
munity may be obtained from one of the seven regional
medical libraries listed below. In the future, it is hoped
that more public libraries will be tied into the NLM sys-
tem. If you prefer to search these files on your own per-
sonal computer, you may request an application form
from the address below. The cost of TRI and most other
files averages $25 per hour with reduced rates during non-
peak hours. The required equipment includes a computer
terminal or personal computer, a phone line, modem, and
telecommunications package.
User guides and instructions are available on all NLM
files. A sequence of user-friendly, menu-driven screens
has been developed for TRI to allow the novice or occa-
_ sional user without any computer background to search
the file. This interface leads you step by step through a
series of menus which ask you what kind of information
you need. You may then display your results at your per-
sonal computer and printer or have the results printed
in an ‘‘off-line’’ mode at NLM and mailed to you the next
day. Similar menus are being designed for TOXNET’s
other files.
We encounter potentially toxic substances at home,
school, the workplace, and in the general environment.
Living in a totally pure, pollution-free environment is not
possible, though steps are being taken to lessen our tech-
nological dependence on and exposure to hazardous
chemicals. Meanwhile, there is an increasing body of in-
formation about such chemicals to help us make decisions
about the nature and degree of the hazards they present
and how to manage their use. The National Library of
Medicine, especially through its TOXNET computer sys-
tem, is an invaluable resource for this toxics information.
For more information about TRI, the TOXNET system,
or other National Library of Medicine files, please contact:
Toxicology Information Program
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
301/496-6531
REGIONAL MEDICAL
LIBRARIES
The New York Academy of Medicine
2 E. 103rd Street
New York, NY 10029
212/876-8763
University of Maryland Health
Sciences Library
111 S. Greene Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
301/328-2855; 800/638-6093
RACHEL
An on-line database known as the Re-
mote Access Chemical Hazards Elec-
tronic Library, RACHEL provides an ex-
tremely useful source of information on
the hazards of particular chemicals and
technologies. You can enter the name of
a particular chemical, and get hazard
profiles from the U.S. Coast Guard, and
more detailed profiles on some that were
developed by the State of New Jersey.
You can also search quickly through
thousands of environmentally relevant
newspaper articles that have been ab-
stracted in a separate part of the system.
Access to the system is free fo citizen
activists, and billed on an hourly basis
to others.
“’Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News’’
states that its purpose is ‘‘providing news
and resources to the movement for En-
vironmental Justice.’’ On two sides of
one sheet of paper, this weekly news-
letter provides more incisive technical,
strategic, and policy information on the
environment than a year’s subscription to
Time or Newsweek. —§ —Sanford lewis
®
We humans dwarf nature. For example,
we inject twice as much arsenic into the at-
mosphere as nature does, seven times as
much cadmium, and 17 times as much
lead. Measured by the metals that nature
moves into the oceans via river discharges,
we humans mobilize (through mining) 13
times as much iron as nature does, 36
times as much phosphorus, and 110 times
as much tin. Small wonder that we find
ourselves destabilizing the planet’s mineral
cycles, disturbing weather patterns, dis-
tressing vast regions of water and vegeta-
tion. We are like a giant blind mechanic,
hammering the planet with our technology.
Yet we are dependent upon nature for
everything we own and everything we are.
It is past time to take stock, to cut back,
to get smart.
There are two basic ways to control pol-
lution: (1) contain it all (“zero discharge’);
or (2) wait until someone is harmed and
can prove they have been harmed, then
control whatever caused the harm. This
second way is being tried by the industrial-
ized world today.
RACHEL
Newsletter $25/year (52 issues);
Database free; information from
Environmental Research Foundation,
P. O. Box 3541, Princeton, NJ 08543-
3541; 609/683-0707
University of Illinois at Chicago
Library of the Health Sciences
P.O. Box 7509
Chicago, IL 60680
312/996-2464
University of Nebraska Medical
Center Library
42nd and Dewey Avenue
Omaba, NE 68105-1065
402/559-4326; 800/MED-RML4
The University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75235-9049
214/688-2085
University of Washington
Health Sciences Library and
Information Center
Seattle, WA: 98195
206/543-8262
University of California
Louise Darling Biomedical Library
10833 Le Conte Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1798
213/825-1200 &
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 : 2 :
What’s Underfoot
Computer Tools For Restoration
BY HANK ROBERTS
The map is not the territory.
—Korzybski, General Semantics
But you've got to know the territory.
—Meredith Willson, The Music Man
A new and powerful computer tool is becoming available
to environmental workers. Information that has been col-
lected in database form — rows and columns of numbers
and words — can be used to produce graphics, maps, and
pictures. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) enable
people to use those graphics as tools for handling and
manipulating that collected information.
GISs begin with database systems. A map is produced
from each database, and displayed using a graphics com-
puter. Selecting a region on the map can help to define
a query of the underlying database, and the query can
be answered by a visible change on the map.
Currently, information in one database often can’t be con-
nected with that in another. Geographic information
chosen by the database designer defines the map for that
database: political boundaries, census tracts, zip codes,
soil profiles, street layouts, easements, rights of way, pipes
and wires, geology, age and condition of buildings, ser-
vices used by residents, or the living features of the
landscape.
A GIS brings together various databases by combining
their maps. Each map is treated as a layer of information.
It's possible to ask questions about a piece of the territory,
and answer it from several databases which are
represented on one combined map.
Most of the information that goes into a GIS is old infor-
mation, and it will be no more accurate than its original
users required it to be. To use these databases, their maps
must be tied back to the earth — verified — to obtain
what's called ‘‘ground truth.’’ When each map has been
verified the maps can then be traced or scanned.
The maps will not originally have been drawn to the same
scale, or on the same coordinate system. To assemble a
set of maps into a GIS, each map must be adjusted in a
precise way. That's called ‘‘rubber-sheeting’’ — using the
computer to stretch each map until reference points coin-
cide when the maps are superimposed. Information from
one database is then related to information in another
database, and all the maps describe the same territory.
; 22 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Lake
County
landfill
site
screening.
Mie =.
we
ae 9
Accurate surveyors’ maps are a good choice for a GIS
because they are the legal description of the land, which
any GIS is likely to have to conform to eventually. But
someone planning a green belt would not need that level
of accuracy and might not need a computer tool at all
— as long as that project stayed independent of others’
actions. A sketch on an existing paper map would suffice.
But multiple records, and multiple maps, lead to sadly
familiar planning errors: streets repaved, then dug up to
replace utility lines; sidewalk trees planted, then cut down
for a long-planned widening of the street; streams restored
by schoolchildren and then bulldozed by county
engineers, as recently happened in California. As the cost
of planning mistakes rises, the motivation to combine in-
formation and plan cooperatively may increase.
As‘GIS tools become available, they can be used to col-
lect information from many sources. Once a GIS is run-
ning, it can produce maps for any database — and can
be fed with any information a citizen might care to have
a planner know about. Most of the information needed
to produce a useful GIS is already available — somewhere.
This is the key point for citizens of a bioregion — a GIS
for a region becomes a compelling tool for planning. A
GIS will carry along with its information the documen-
tation: Where did the information come from? How old
is it? How accurate? That gives people the opportunity
to question and correct these systems, and to include in
them the facts that one gets by loving and living on the
land and paying attention to it:
As a boy in Pennsylvania 40 years ago, I marveled at the
swarms of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, thrushes, and other
small colorful birds in our forests during May. Their songs
were a continuous chorus. With practice, the ear could sort
out and identify individual species within the chorus, just
as individual instruments can be heard within an orchestra.
Spring migration was one of the most spectacular events in
the world of birds.
The swarms of birds, and the chorus, are not there anymore.
By comparison with 40 years ago, spring has become almost
silent. The chorus has dwindled to a few solos with gaps
between; song identification is no longer much of a challenge.
CULTURAL FEATURES
t
f
A. eS SP SRS Eee eet
DEVELOPMENT
Le Vow
_ I would say that spring migration has declined by at least 80
percent since the 1940s.
My impressions are subjective. I have no data; I've even chang-
ed locations. But ornithologists whose memories go back 20
or more years all say the same thing: spring migrations have
collapsed.
These birds travel high in the sky by night. The number of
migrating birds in recent nighttime radar pictures has declined
‘‘precipitiously’’ — by more than 50 percent — from 1950s
radar pictures.
Changes in bird populations sometimes tell us
something... .
—Dr. Charles E Wurster, excerpted with
permission from Environmental Defense
Fund Letter, Oct. 1989
A GIS need not be complex to be useful; it can begin as
a simple system used to automate routine clerical work.
The commonest need in local government is notification.
Identifying every property owner who should be notified
of a proposed zoning change, a tedious task when done
by hand, can be done by marking the affected area on
the GIS zoning map rather than by searching through the
files. Upgrading the software later can add query features
such as plan checking — pointing to a parcel on the map
and calling up the relevant codes and requirements to con-
firm that it is acceptable for a proposed use.
The next generation of GIS programs will be able to use
The Sierran Biodiversity Project was
initiated to develop long-range plan-
ning tools for the maintenance of bio-
diversity in California's Sierra Nevada
mountains. We are establishing a geo-
graphical information system (GIS)
for Sierran National Forest lands,
using data from the Forest Service .
and other sources. The coverages being
constructed include elevation, roads,
hydrography, ownership and manage-
ment boundaries, vegetation and soil
The Sierran Biodiversity Project
typing, animal distribution, and past
and prospective forest cutting. Using
the composite maps, ancient forests
will be identified and field-verified.
The insights from conservation biology
and landscape ecology will be applied
to design a master biodiversity net-
work and maintenance plan.
In the past, a mapping project of this
scale would have involved hundreds
of people and years of time — to pro-
Using GIS, twelve mapped variables such as endangered species habitats,
school and hospital sites, existing development, and suitability of
highways to heavy truck traffic were summarized on four composites
which allowed the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources
to determine areas of suitability for a proposed new landfill. arc/inro Maps
‘‘distributed’’ software systems that live nowhere in par-
ticular and can be used from any telephone (such as
Usenet, WER #65, p. 112). Using these tools, local groups
of people will be able to share the environmental records
they have collected, by combining their databases, allow-
ing locally collected information to be fitted together
into a picture of the world we share.
Within a couple of years such networks will be accessible
to local restoration workers — and that’s not much lead |
time to get your information ready. The database infor-
mation is the core material, that which lasts, changing
only to reflect changes in the physical world. New GIS
software and hardware may be obtained frequently as
these tools are improved.
As the cost of the tools decreases, the cost of labor in-
volved in collecting the information will rise. This is where
a GIS can be a tool for the eyes and ears and mind.
Human memory is the best and most fragile record of
what the world is like. Much of what we know about the
natural world resides in aging human memories, scattered
and anecdotal. That information can be collected using
the simplest tools — handwritten notes will do for a start
— and such local detail will improve the resolution of the
Big Picture when one is made. Memories, notes, pictures
and recordings can become the baseline data needed as
restoration work proceeds. m
duce a set of hard-copy maps that
would be out of date upon comple-
tion. The real power of GIS technology
is analogous to the power of a word
processor in its phenomenal ease of
map updating and editing. Addition-
ally, the powerful numerical tools
of the GIS permit rapid quantitative
analysis of geographic features and
their attributes.
Please write if you wish to be involved.
—Eric and Steve Beckwitt
P. O. Box 29
North San Juan, CA 95960
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 4 23
mm ACTIVE LANDSLIDES. 4S OF 1983
i ene WITH WELL-DEFINED
fo ? QPABL, POSStBLe AND QUESTIONABLE
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“o¢ “ sy ¢
di Ws > ol
% hi
LANDSLIDES
. a
Pee yh ee
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SurrabiLiny SAAR eRRy Beene
FOR DEVELOPMENT ry F dataions
AND SAFETY rr ei. ce manger
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—
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tlererletorlaca
aw BlLuhSae lb S OF PARKS
One variable and a composite in a series of
maps which can be used asa model for __
problem-solving and decision-making for
planning purposes.
SEAWARD FLANK — SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS
LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
ARC/IINFO
A geographic information system (GIS) is
a computer-based technology consisting
of hardware, software, and data, which
allows the capture, display, editing and
analysis of geographic information.
ARC/INFO and PC ARC/INFO have
established themselves as the industry-
standard GlSs. They are available on a
wide range of computer systems including
mainframes, minicomputers, and work-
stations from different manufacturers.
The MS-DOS version, PC ARC/INFO,
requires an IBM-compatible 80286 or
faster processor with a minimum of 40
megabytes of hard-disk storage and
80287 or 80387 numerical co-processor.
A high-resolution color graphic display
system is highly recommended. The newly
emerging PC standard includes a dedi-
cated graphics coprocessor and screen
resolution of 768 x 1024 pixels or better.
There is no Macintosh version available.
PC ARC/INFO comes in modules —
PC Starter Kit, PC ArcEdit, ArcPlot, PC
Overlay, PC Data Conversion-and PC
Network. The fully installed program oc-
cupies about 29 megabytes of hard-disk
storage.
macGiS
Want a GIS right away? The macGlS
program begins with a scanned map or
aerial photograph for the base picture. A
grid is created and aligned precisely
with the base map. Numerical informa-
tion may be “‘painted’’ over this map by
hand using the mouse, or generated using
imported data from which macGIS paints
a picture. Overlays assign paint patterns
to represent numeric values for any map-
pable characteristic. When a new ob-
servation is available, it may be painted
onto the data layer, and the underlying
database is updated as that is done.
The macGIS User’s Guide is a
200-page workbook, clearly written and
well illustrated, showing its academic
origins. The user is assumed to know
how to use a database; reports are pro-
duced by arithmetic and algebraic op-
10 20
Ole ON ee SO
erations on existing data. What macG/S
offers is the graphic interface, whereby
a database query produces a new map.
A complicated analysis can be recorded
to produce a batch program which can
redo the procedure automatically.
The novice learning to use macGIS can
use the basic Mac Plus or SE models,
although quite slowly, making this pro-
gram the only GIS available at present
that will run on inexpensive computers.
—Hank Roberts
macGli$S
Version 1.0
$300 (price lower to educational
and nonprofit groups). Mac IIx, hard
disk, and plotter recommended.
David W. Hulse, Dept. of Landscape
Architecture, School of Architecture
and Allied Arts, University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR 97403; 503/686-3634.
40
203 DRYLAND
238 RIVERS
43 PEREN. STREAMS
123. INTER. STREAMS
2 SPRINGS/SEEPS
60 POND
SLOUGH
es ef 6 &
or “‘coverages.”’
aca ay er eT CN
<i
The ARC system stores geographical
feature locations as a set of coordinates
and as relationships between connected
or adjacent features. The relationships
used fo represent the connectivity of
contiguous features are referred to as
topology. The geographic features are
digitally stored in computer files as layers
Typical coverages
assembled for a USGS standard 7}2-
minute quadrangle (1:24,000 scale)
might include elevation, soil types, vege-
tation types, hydrography, or roads
and ownership boundaries.
After learning the ARC/INFO software
system, input of graphic and feature at-
tributes is the largest task associated
with building a GIS. Maps may be digi-
tized or scanned into computer files
and then imported into ARC coverages.
Standard graphical output is to a plotter
or to a Postscript- or Laserjet-compatible
laser printer. Some dot-matrix printers are
supported at lower graphic resolutions.
—Eric and Steve Beckwitt
ARC/IINFO
For more information, contact:
Marketing Dept., Environmental
Systems Research Institute, Inc., 380
New York Street, Redlands, CA
92373; 714/793-2853.
Text Processors
Text processors are small fast programs
for producing ASCII (plain text) files.
For getting information written down for
later use, they're all you need to avoid
retyping. Here are two good ones.
QEdit: Fast! Many files can be open in
memory at the same time, allowing text
to be easily cut and pasted between files.
QEdit offers both pull-down menus with:
mouse support and control-key commands.
Shareware and commercial versions are
available.
Vantage: An earlier version of this handy
program, under the name MacSink, was
| available as shareware. It has been a
sturdy performer for several years. The
commercial version under the name Van-
tage is well supported and comes with
a good manual. —Hank Roberts
QEdit
Version 2.08. DOS
$57. 95 postpaid from SemiWere
4343 Shallowford Road/Suite C3,
Marietta, GA 30062; 404/641-9002.
Vantage
Version 1.5; Macintosh
$99.95 from Preferred Publishers,
Inc., 5100 Poplar Ave./Suite 617,
Memphis, TN 38137; 800/446-6393.
A Crime
Lab For
Animals
BY JUDITH GOLDSMITH
Bird identification expert
Beth Ann Gilroy exam-
ines a human artifact to
determine if the feathers
are from an endangered
species. Identifications
are based on both visual
and microscopic com-
parisons against known
feathers.
VER one hundred nations have now signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES). As one of the signators, the United States pledges that no material made from or
including parts of endangered animal species will be allowed to cross our borders or be sold within them.
The first National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory for enforcement of the Endangered Species
Act and the CITES Treaty opened its doors in June 1989, in the quiet town of Ashland, Oregon. It is the first crime
lab for animal species in the world.
Forensic scientist Ken Goddard, the lab’s director, has been working since 1979 to make the lab a reality. Goddard
was hired for the job because of his previous experience as director of a police crime lab. For the Fish and Wildlife
Service to be secure about winning its battles in court, it needed a forensics lab to provide full evidentiary data to
back up arrests and seizures.
Goddard writes mystery novels on the side. His sense of humor is a good thing, because the challenges of this work
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 \ 25
are enormous. As he points out, species of plants and
animals are classified by certain groups of characteristics.
For example, the differences between an endangered red
wolf (now found only in remnant populations in Texas
and Louisiana) and a legal coyote are usually based on
the coyote’s smaller size and lesser weight, its narrower
snout and face, its less doglike appearance, smaller, less
rounded ears, smaller feet, and black-tipped tail that
droops low behind the hind legs. But, as Goddard says,
‘What if you only have a paw? Some teeth? Or worse,
just spattered blood on a coat or shirt? What if the animal
is indeed an endangered red wolf? Is it full-blooded or
hybrid? It’s legal to kill and sell hybrid wolves.’’
So the first challenge facing the forensics lab is develop-
ing a database of a whole new group of ‘‘species-defining
characteristics,'’ over and above what taxonomists use,
that can be proven to be invariably indicative of a certain
species of animal. Goddard describes the work that lab
employee Dr. Ed Espinoza is doing on ivory, which is
often seized as a carved art piece, resembling its original
form only in color, texture, and hardness. ‘‘The first and .
easiest job is to prove that the material is real ivory, and
not a synthetic look-alike. Beyond that, ivory from a (legal)
warthog has to be differentiated from ivory from a hippo,
walrus, sperm whale, or elephant. All of this scientists
can already do, through visual, microscopic, and instru-
mental analysis techniques.
‘‘Now comes the real challenge — proving that the ivory
is from, say, an African or Asian elephant, which is il-
legal to kill, and not from a long-extinct mammoth or
mastodon, which can be sold and worked without any
penalty.’’ With the help of an infrared spectrometer, Es-
pinoza is able to make these identifications. The spec-
trometer is a non-destructive analytical tool (which allows
the carving eventually to be donated to a museum); Es-
pinoza is also working on identifying chemical structures
in the crosshatching of ivory, a kind of species fingerprint.
: 26 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW | SPRING 1990
Goddard showed me around the serology and morphol-
ogy sections of the lab, where the challenges are just as
high. In serology — identification through analysis of
blood and tissue — a study of immunology may show that
blood came from a member of the cat family. Protein
electrophoresis could tell that the blood came from a snow
leopard. But the lab also hopes to start using DNA anal-
ysis, which would actually prove that a blood sample came
from a particular animal found in the back of a hunter’s
truck, mounted on a wall, or as dressed meat in a freezer.
The forensics lab is also amassing information from the
only places that regularly deal with wild species of animals
— zoos. In order to say that a particular fur or blood type
comes from an endangered snow leopard, a sample from
a snow leopard is needed for comparison. ‘I’m not about
to go grabbing a handful of fur through the cage bars,
or trying to poke the creature with a needle,’’ Goddard
jokes. Zoos regularly anesthetize live animals for medical
- reasons, and can then take documented blood, fur, or
other samples which are preserved and catalogued for
future use. Oliver Ryder of the San Diego Zoo has been
(Above) An assortment of Asian medicinal
products containing ground rhinoceros
horn. Rhinos are protected by the CITES
treaty. Seized products like these can only
be used as evidence in court if the pro-
tected materials are positively identified.
_ and Ed Espinoza using a scanning electron
microscope to identify a suspected piece _
of elephant ivory. Visual analyses, using
a protractor to measure the distinctive
as well.
(Left) Forensic scientists Mary Jacque Mann
angles of striations in ivory, are performed -
saving fist-sized pieces of numerous animals in a cryogenic
collection he hopes one day to use to recreate vanished
species, and since he only needs thumb-size pieces, there
has been discussion of donating some of his stock to the
lab. Goddard is contacting many more zoos for help in
obtaining data samples.
In other departments, carefully computerized inventory
techniques. are being developed to prove the chain of ©
custody after a piece of evidence arrives at the lab. Human
involvement with killings is proved by test-firing con-
fiscated guns and analyzing human blood and fingerprints
(after all, the animal may have died naturally, and have
been found dead by the human in question). A scanning
electron microscope analyzes gunshot residue, or pollen
which might identify what part of the world a sample
comes from. A mass spectrograph can discern one part
sea turtle oil in 1,000 parts lanolin. In the warehouse,
50,000 to 60,000 items may be stored at any one time.
“That number is kind of a wild guess,’’ says Goddard.
‘“New York or New Jersey could double our inventory in
one afternoon simply by seizing a cargo ship.”’
Lab technician Jim Kniffen using a bar-code scanner
to log protected sea turtles into the storage repos-
itory. Typically, U.S. tourists bring these stuffed
souvenirs home from Caribbean vacations, only to
have them confiscated at customs by Fish and Wild-
life inspectors. These turtles will eventually be
distributed to schools and used for educational
purposes.
Photos from National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory
Disposition of the evidence after cases are resolved will
eventually become a problem. Goddard would like to hear
from public or private agencies that could use seized evi-
dence for educational displays about the dangers and pro-
blems of species destruction, such as the one at Denver's
Stapleton Airport.
The new lab is currently budgeted for eighteen scientists
in a total staff of thirty. That’s adequate for the initial,
standard-setting work, but will soon be grossly inadequate
when scientists begin to start spending their time flying
all over the world to testify at trials. Goddard estimates
that the lab may eventually need a staff of 100 to keep
up with the anticipated workload.''We're pioneers here.
There are only eight states in the U.S. with their own
wildlife crime labs, typically with only one or two people
on staff. If each state could establish a crime lab adequate
to cover its own cases, using the techniques we're devel-
oping, that would help a lot. If they could do just the one-
hunter/one-animal cases, and leave us the complex cases,
that would be a good first step. We'll be happy to share
information.’ #
Judith Goldsmith is a writer and graphic artist who does volunteer work with the Sierra Club on creek restoration projects in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Her last article in these pages was ‘‘H.O.M.E."' in the Summer 1982 issue of CoEvolution Quarterly.
The National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory can be contacted at 1490 E. Main Street, Ashland, OR 97520. Director Ken
Goddard is still hiring staff, who are happy, be says, to be living and working in southern Oregon. Forensic scientists normally have
to go where the work is — to high-crime areas.
—Richard Nilsen
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 f 27
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t's summer 1986, and Aunt Suzanne and I are
driving up the Blackfoot. In local parlance this |
means we're heading upstream on the curves of
Highway 200 where it hems the narrow bank of
the Blackfoot River. Aunt Suzanne and I have a
bet. I say the river runs south along Johnsrud Bridge. ;
She says east. We've got my dad’s compass. This argu- |
ment impends a definite settlement. I'm happy to be |
on the road, but I'd be happier if Miss Suzanne |
Claredon would quit preaching. It’s truth-and-beauty |
again. I've heard it before. We all have. The only verity. |
Fundament of all comprehension. The well from which
she draws all belief about reality and morality, and
about aesthetics. Her words, not mine. And a few are
Keats’. She expounds too much. Sooner or later, every
conversation deteriorates to that generalization, col-
lects that last coup about beauty being truth, which is |
all ye and me need to know. My father’s eyes glaze. |
And mine. . Sp |
FICTION BY JERRY MCGAHAN Miss Claredon was my high-school English teacher and
track coach. When I was 17, I wrote essays for Aunt |
|
ILLUSTRATED BY KRISTEN THROOP Suzanne on self-knowledge and the Seneca Falls suffra-
LEIA TSE N RE Bi WEY MET PAP EOP Ta tee! Fae ettes. And I sprinted for her. I did better on the essays.
Jerry McGahan is a beekeeper who drives by Rainbow Bend regu- P 1
larly on bis way to some of his beeyards. He, his wife, and a A flagman stops us in a moil of construction dust. Be-
number of children live near Arlee, Montana, —Richard Nilsen neath the sky we watch belly-loaders creep lizardy steel .
I 28 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
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through their scraped-out dens. The flagman’s face is
sweaty, bewhiskered, plundered, dead as tire rubber. I
think flagmen are the living dead. A distinction here:
flagmen not flagwomen. Flagwomen are.awake. Our
sex is watchful. Alert as deer. Asleep or bored, even
dead, you can still see on the face of every female rays
of watchfulness, invisible feelers in an electric breeze.
‘*You can see it perfectly,’ Aunt Suzanne is saying,
‘“whenever you consider what has persuaded you, what
changes your mind, what it takes to convince you.
Look.’’ she points at me. Aunt Suzanne’s eyes are the
color of Army canvas. I saw her hit a man once, al-
though, as far as I know, she’s never laid a hand on a
student. The man was somebody my father and mother
knew, too. I wasn’t very old. We were out at Council
Grove and father was fishing, and I was toasting a marsh-
mallow, and Aunt Suzanne and Mr. Gets-Hit were down
by the river talking to each other — leaning at each
other from the waist — and she smacked him. Then my
mother stood in front of me. I think he walked to town.
‘‘Look,’’ Miss Claredon says. I look at the river. ‘‘Look
at what persuades you. Logic is only a figurehead. It’s
eloquence that does the job. That's the measure by
which we are moved, moved to agree, moved to empa-
thize. It always depends upon how prettily the case is
presented. When it is lovely, you cannot escape. The
crystalline lattices of geometry and reason are lovely,
and it is only by loveliness that we are given to them.
How can we help it? Here we stand squashed under
the wheeling heavens, stuck to the perfect circling of
sunrises and seasons, the immutable soaring stars. But
eloquence, you see, is one heart speaking to another,
and the human heart cannot avoid that sound. It’s not
a matter of choice.”
No choice here. I’m staring at the flagman’s sucked-
out face, and he seems to have no choice, either, about
sucking back what he lost long ago. He turns the sign to
SLOW and we edge by. Is there a spirit lingering some-
where? I consider hiking my sweatshirt up and flashing
him a tit. Not that I’m an exhibitionist or proud of
anything underneath there. Pure altruism. A shot of
visual CPR.
“Your Neanderthal at work,’’ Aunt Suzanne says. ‘“The
mountain is in the way so let’s chop out a notch. Twen-
ty feet of crushed stone hunkers where a snail waited
once under the ninebark, all so we won't have to make
this one turn on Rainbow Bend.”’
‘You hate Rainbow Bend! You called it the most dan-
gerous curve in the state.’’ I’m getting annoyed. I’ve
always had a problem with people who know things.
‘‘Remember the ice when you were sliding that time,
what you said —”’
‘It was dangerous,’ she squeals. ‘‘It did scare me. I
know how many bodies they've fished out of that water.
But that has nothing to do with whacking out a wedge
of mountain, slicing it out as if it were cake. Besides,
you can scream in fright without forswearing it. Being
afraid doesn’t mean one doesn’t want to be afraid.’’
We are driving through the cut. The fresh rose-red
stone does look like it’s been cut with a serrated bread
knife. “‘Argillite,’ Miss Claredon instructs, ‘'a kind of
mudstone. It’s not dead, you see, no more than the
planet is dead. A plant in the pot is not alive if the soil
is dead. Someday we'll have to put this mountain back.
We'll have to find every rock and grain of sand and
put it back where it was.’’
I'm wondering if Mr. Gets-Hit ever got any. Or got
too much.
We stop at. the bridge. I sneak a glance at the compass
in my pocket. She's lost the bet, but I knew that already.
Good for her. Good for me. We walk down the river's
edge and | show her the compass. She takes it and tips
side to side, but it won't change enough. *'You win,’’
she says,. ‘I never was any good at directions.’’ She's
already on her way back to the car.
‘‘Listen,’’ she says when we turn onto the highway
toward home, ‘‘let me persuade you that they will put
this mountain back, all of it.’’
‘‘Sure,’’ I say, ‘'persuade me.’’
“All right..." she says, ‘‘this isn't a 10- or 20-year
project. Apes need more than a few decades of tech-
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 ! 29
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nological corruption to see the light. Let’s go a century,
even though it could happen sooner. No fossil fuels,
no cars. All right?”’
I can see it in a century. So I agree. We'll be onto magic
microwave carpets. Look what those a century before
would never believe about this one.
‘Yes,’ she advances, ‘‘you know, no culture of ours is
ever going to abandon miles of dead asphalt and con-
crete. Say what you will, there is a collective tidiness
to us. We'll clean it up.’
‘Yeah, but a mountain? Put it back? Grains of sand
and all?’
Her eyeballs quiver. I see her steering them into the
next century. ‘More peaple leaves less time alone. We
find out that we've left our hearts on a shelf and that
we've walked away. By and by, we will sense that nick
in our soul. You know, the ‘primitive’ mind fascinates
us now... already... ’’ Aunt Suzanne makes quote
signs with her fingers. We're back to the highway con-
struction. A truck ahead squalls dust and diesel exhaust.
‘And it remembers, as blood remembers a once-upon-
a-time serenity. You see, what cannot be denied, what
one can never counter, is that we love love.’’ Aunt Su-
zanne studies my face to see what she needs in the way
of fine tuning. ‘‘By the old visionaries,’ she plunges
on, ‘Chief Joseph, Gandhi, Ishi — who few know — by
these voices we discover our own home. These voices
will always be important, more important than the
voices we listen to now, because we love passionate
| 30 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
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people. We crave that richness of spirit. We realize that
home is the source and provender for all that feeling.
There is that ancient desire inside us to see the place
where we were born, to see where we grew and saw.
and ate and drank and slept and discovered the raw
newnesses of this earth. We will seek it, won't we?”’
I am squinting at her.
‘You go from there. Will you carry that mountain back?”’
‘What if we really can invent or package all we need?”’
I say. ‘‘Maybe one potted geranium is enough for the
Savage in us.’
‘‘That’s what I’m talking about. It’s the difference be-
tween the interior of a kid stuck to the joy stick of a
video game and that of a Sioux boy on his vision quest,
coming of age by fasting four days in a cave or a moun-
tain top. Is a joy stick enough? This ridge, this desecrated
ridge might have been a sacred place to someone once. ’
She points at the highway cut at Rainbow Bend. ‘‘But
whether it was or not doesn’t matter because it is. This
place contains us. After we've hauled enough plastic
back and forth between K-Mart and the dump, after
we've tired of stuffing electrons into our eyes and ears
and the other tired holes then maybe in a hundred years
we'll try to put it together. Just like they put together
the Little Mermaid in Denmark and the Pieta in Rome
when the vandals got them. In a hundred years, God
willing, we'll have the tools and means, the regret and
dedication, to repair this vandalism. We will go home.’’
She stops the car. Another flagman. He's no different
than the other. They are bookends of night. Tombstones.
I think about surprising him, and then I repress the
idea. And then | repress the repressor. Why not? So I
flash him for truth and beauty. One hand waves back,
but I see a lurch of life leap over his brow. Aunt Suzanne
acts as if she hasn't seen a thing. Suzanne Claredon
without comment — now that’s a definite first. The
flagman watches after us.
‘Yeah,’’ I say to her, ‘‘I know what you mean.’’ Why I
said that, I haven't a clue. Ignorance and beauty, that’s
for flagmen and me. m
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Man of the Trees
Richard St. Barbe Baker was a man
ahead of his time, so far ahead in fact
that nearly a decade after his death, the
reforestation concepts he was preaching
sixty years ago are just beginning to
enter the popular consciousness. He
traveled the globe teaching people the
importance of planting trees, and his
description of forests as the lungs of the
earth anticipated in a conceptual way
the Gaia Theory debated today. It’s fair
to call him a pioneer of environmental
restoration.
The book Man of the Trees is short
selections of St. Barbe Baker’s writing,
taken from seven of his many books. The
video by the same name is a documen-
tary of his life, and includes a great se-
quence with him hugging a big tree as
St. Barbe with a planting team of Beijing
schoolchildren in front of the Chinese Aca-
demy of Forestry in 1981.
he explains that he does this daily as a
way of gathering energy and charging
up his batteries. Who knows, in another
sixty years maybe we'll understand
that too. —Richard Nilsen
Today it is the duty of every thinking being
to live and to serve not only his own day
and generation, but also generations un-
born, by helping to restore and maintain
the green glory of the forests of the earth.
Man of the Trees
Video (VHS)
$23 postpaid; catalog free from
Music for Little People, P. O. Box
1460, Redway, CA 95560;
800/346-4445.
Man of the Trees
(Selected Writings of Richard St.
Barbe Baker)
Karen Gridley, Editor
1989; 115 pp.
$1 2.50 ($13.50 postpaid) from
Ecology Action, 5798 Ridgewood
Road, Willits, CA 95490.
Video (VHS)
$33.45 postpaid from CBC Home
Video, P. O. Box 6440/Station A,
Montreal, QC H3C 3L4, Canada;
514/597-4040.
Vite
The Man Who
Planted Trees
Jean Giono’s short story about a tree-
planting hermit in the south of France is a
parable of restoration. The oaks and
beeches sown by this one man over forty
years transform an entire region which
had been degraded by deforestation.
~ The animated film of this inspiring story is
not just good, it’s excellent — winning an
Oscar in 1987. Frederic Back’s drawing
is soft, shimmering, and uses a point of
view that’s constantly in motion. Christo-
pher Plummer narrates. The video version
is packaged with two other animated
shorts by Back; one of them, Cracl, also
won an Oscar in 1982. —Richard Nilsen -
[Suggested by Tom Waller]
Backyard Safari
Jack Schmidling and Marilyn Schenk
show how they created a mini-prairie in
their Illinois backyard. First the how-to
part: build a fence so neighbors won't
complain about your ‘‘unkempt”’ yard;
plant native plants (milkweed and thistle
— weeds to us — are manna in the urban-
ized desert to goldfinches and monarch
butterfly larvae); burn the ‘‘prairie’’ in
early spring so grass and flower seeds
will germinate. Then the safari begins —
a trip through a yearly cycle in the
backyard prairie ecosystem. Here the
wildlife (beautifully filmed) show the
payoff for converting your backyard from’
barbecue patio to wildlife sanctuary.
From lacewing beetle to the rabbit that
visits this postage-stamp paradise, the
diversity of life in a small backyard is
astounding, entertaining, humbling. Don’t
be surprised when this video ends with a
plug to join the Backyard Wildlife Sanctu-
ary Program (spon-
sored by the National
Wildlife Federation)
— a good, do-able
project for home-
owners everywhere.
—Corinne
Cullen Hawkins
Backyard
Safari
Video (VHS)
$32 postpaid;
catalog free from
Jack Schmidling Pro-
ductions, 4501 Moody,
Chicago, IL 60630;
312/685-1878.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 / 3 4
AVI YQ0UQPLOPROPLP PIG OPEVPEQGDO PIP PIDUVYYPVUVG GI GX
C OW wetca PEACE BRIGADES I am sure I would
not be alive”’ says Amilicar Mendez, leader of an
organization (CERJ) which counsels Guatemalan
campesinos who want to withdraw from the paramilitary Civil
Patrols in which over 600,000 men are enrolled, supposedly on
a voluntary basis. Mendez, whose organization is based in the
Department of El Quiché where political violence has taken
tens of thousands of lives over the past decade, has received
countless death threats. He has had off-and-on PBI accom-
paniment since 1985.
Another Guatemalan activist who may owe her life to her PBI
escorts is Nineth de Garcia, president of GAM (the Group for
Mutual Support). GAM is made up of thousands of relatives of
Guatemala’s ‘‘disappeared’’; de Garcia founded the group after
her own husband, a student activist and labor leader, disap-
peared in 1984. She and other GAM leaders have endured an
almost constant barrage of death threats that still arrive
regularly by phone and mail. GAM’s dogged fight to get
answers and assistance for the relatives of the disappeared and
to bring those responsible for disappearances to justice has
been a thorn in the side of the Guatemalan government, which
frequently attacks GAM and de Garcia in the press, sometimes
suggesting that they are linked to guerrilla organizations.
About a dozen GAM members have been murdered since the
group was founded, and it was after one of these murders, in
1985, that de Garcia and PBI together hit upon the idea of
having PBI volunteers escort GAM leaders and other people
thought to be in danger for political reasons. Peace Brigades
then began escorting de Garcia and other GAM activists and
members regularly. De Garcia’s daughter, now seven, has also
had round-the-clock PBI escorts for most of the past four years.
Peace Brigades is an outgrowth of the Gandhian movement for
nonviolent change. Modeled in part on the Shanti Sena, Gandhi’s
“peace army”’ that worked to stem violence between Muslims
and Hindus in post-independence India, PBI was founded at an
international gathering in Canada in 1981. Some of its founders
PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL
BY LARRY LACK
Spanish PBI volunteer Jose
Angel Gonzales provides a
neutral witness to a CERJ
(Ethnic Communities United
in Total Equality) demon-
stration, near the National
Palace in Guatemala City.
Gonzales wears an identify-
ing PBI armband.
Think of Peace Brigades International as a doorstop for peace. Teams of well-trained PBI volunteers in El Salvador and Guatemala seek out open-
ings in the volatile political scene and then try to hold them open using various nonviolent tactics. PBI’s success with ‘escorting’? — where volun-
teers accompany individuals who are threatened by death squads — has lead to a growing international reputation in nonviolence circles, and ex-
ploratory projects in South Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland.
Since this article was written, much has changed for PBI in Central America. On November 20, 1989, the El Salvador team was expelled from the
country by the right-wing ARENA party. And one month later, three PBI volunteers were attacked with knives by right-extremists just one block
from PBI headquarters in Guatemala City. Undeterred, the team in Guatemala is still at work, and the El Salvador team plans to return as soon
as possible,
Larry Lack was a short-term PBI volunteer in Guatemala. His “‘All Is Not Well In Cree Country’ appeared in WER #58 (Spring 1988). Contact
Peace Brigades International at 193 Yonge Street/Suite 502, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 1M8; 416/594-0429.
—Jeanne Carstensen
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_ were active in an earlier group, World Peace Brigades, which
helped keep peace during Zambia’s struggle for independence
in 1962-1964.
PBI’s first volunteers arrived in Guatemala in 1983. They moved
into the Guatemala City house that still serves as the group’s
Guatemala headquarters, and spent over a year learning about
Guatemalan politics and making contacts around the country. —
In March 1985 they began escorting Guatemalans threatened by
political violence. Without PBI escorts, many observers agree,
de Garcia and the rest of GAM’s surviving leadership would
almost surely have been killed or forced to give up their work
and flee the country years ago.
““GAM and Amilicar Mendez’ organization CERJ are two good
examples of how international human-rights groups can work
together effectively,’ says Dieter Overath, head of the West Ger-
man section of Amnesty International, who visited Guatemala
in January 1989. ‘‘No one knows how many deaths and dis-
appearances PBI has prevented, but in a way that’s the good
part: they can work preventively, keep some of the bad things
from happening. In Amnesty we can generally get into high
gear only after something bad has already happened. . . . One
of our coordinating group in Germany is an ex-PBI volunteer.
He’s been on their Guatemala team twice. If anything happens
to PBI people or to the people they are escorting, you can be
sure that our members in Germany will be on the case very
quickly. Peace Brigades is one of our best and most direct
sources of information on Central America.’
The fourteen members of the 1989 PBI Guatemala team reflect
some of the diverse influences and backgrounds that give the
organization its complex character. Composed equally of men
and women, this team includes five Spaniards, volunteers from
Germany, Holland and Switzerland, and three Americans. (Al-
though this group is mostly European, PBI teams more typi-
cally comprise about equal numbers of Europeans and North
Americans.) This team includes a Quaker college administrator
from Rhode Island, a schoolteacher from Barcelona, a physi-
cian from West Germany, two language scholars, a nurse who
teaches yoga in Madrid, a housewife from a small college town
in Illinois, a peace activist and potter from Michigan, and two
Spaniards who live in different branches of the Community
of the Ark, a European network of self-sufficient Gandhian
communal farms.
All PBI volunteers are pledged to a discipline of nonviolence
for the term of their PBI service. Some members of this team
say they are committed to nonviolence as an absolute principle;
others see nonviolence as a tactic, useful for advancing political
freedom and human rights in some situations but not in others.
While many PBI volunteers are religiously motivated, others are
not. There is no single common denominator or required ideol-
ogy in PBI beyond the desire to give nonviolent conflict resolu-
tion a chance to work in violence-plagued places like Guatemala.
In the five years since PBI began its work in Central America,
more than 275 volunteers from more than a dozen countries
have served in stints ranging from two weeks to over 18 months.
Volunteers must speak and understand Spanish well, although
‘ in the past people without good Spanish have at times been
accepted simply because escorts — ‘‘warm bodies’’ — were ur-
gently needed and in short supply. Better planning has relieved
this problem.
PBI volunteers pay their own way to and from Guatemala or El
Salvador. While they are working for PBI in these countries
their room and board, transportation (always by bus) and other
necessary expenses are covered by PBI. Volunteers get a day off
every. two weeks, at least in theory. After three months of work-
ing for PBI, volunteers may receive a minimal stipend (currently
just $50 a month) to help them pay their return passage to their
home country and to cover the other expenses of a long-term
stay, such as occasional clothing purchases and bus tickets and
lodging costs for rare two- or three-day vacations. Volunteers
who stay more than nine months may also receive an additional
$50 a month after their first three months. This “‘repatriation
sum’’ is offered to assist volunteers to get re-established after
they return home.
Three- to six-day training sessions are held several times each
year in Europe and North America. All volunteers must attend
one of these sessions before they can work for PBI in Central
America. Trainings are conducted in Spanish to assure that
‘volunteers have sufficient mastery of the language to be able to
communicate effectively in the emergencies they may encounter
on the job. Role-plays are used to simulate kidnappings and
attacks on escortees. Trainees are taught how to use their
presence and their cameras, the only ‘‘weapons’’ they will have
as escorts, to try to defuse tense situations and prevent violence.
eh
Guatemalan populist leader Rigoberta Menchu, left (see
WER #59, p. 32 for excerpt from her book), and her PBI
escort-driver, Isabel Selles of Spain, visit Guatemala City
with a delegation in February 1989.
In March, 1989, Canadian volunteer Karen Enns and another
member of PBI’s El Salvador team had to put this training —
and their instincts, judgment and common sense — to the test.
During the tremendous tension of the days just before El
Salvador’s general elections the two women were assigned to
escort a group of trade-union leaders. As they walked with their
escortees through the endless cordons of troops and police who
filled the streets of San Salvador, soldiers detained the two
volunteers to question them and examine their papers. When
they were allowed to go, they ran to catch up with the union
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group, which in their absence had suddenly been surrounded by
heavily armed soldiers and members of the National Police.
Enns’ notes on the situation say that ‘“The National Police had
grabbed one (union) leader and were chasing another, and even
trying to run him down with a police car. We were tense and
fearful as we tried to simultaneously take photos and run toward
the group, not knowing what actions would be most effective.
Apparently (what we did) was effective, because as we reached
the group the police released their captive and withdrew.’
In addition to rehearsing for emergencies, the trainings are
designed to prepare volunteers for the cultural, political and
personal realities they will encounter in Central America. They
are told not to expect gratitude, friendship, or even respect as a
matter of course from those they will escort, since at times
escorts are taken for granted or even become emotional scape-
goats for escortees who live under enormous pressure and who
may build up great resentment. PBI’s trainers try to implant the
special sensitivity and understanding that volunteers will need
~ to handle the ups and downs of the work they will be doing.
Training continues on arrival in Central America, where PBI
uses an array of books and training manuals, nearly all in
Spanish, to prepare new volunteers. The notes of former
brigadistas are read, and trainees are briefed about tough deci-
sions they might have to face, such as whether to try to prevent
an abduction by getting between the escortee and the kidnap-
pers, or by blocking the path of the kidnap car or sitting on its
hood. The newcomers are given cards which are to be scattered
at the scene should they or someone they are escorting be kid-
napped. These cards ask witnesses to call PBI with any infor-
mation they may have, and promise to respect the anonymity
of those who call.
Nonpartisanship is a PBI principle that can provoke intense
discussion among brigadistas. The training materials used in
Guatemala stress that ‘‘Volunteers must refrain from statements
YG YUSY YY IYI
that could be interpreted as attacks on the Guatemalan govern-
ment or military while they are in Guatemala and after they
leave. . . . Our ability to remain in the country depends on
(maintaining a posture of nonalignment).’’ These materials also
ask volunteers to refrain from engaging in solidarity work while
they are in Guatemala or immediately after working for PBI.
‘“We are nonpartisan because we don’t take sides as an organ-
ization, we avoid making political statements, and we don’t do
things that could be seen as help or support for any political
group beyond just escorting and acting as observers,’ says
Heinke Wendt, a West German physician on PBI’s Guatemala»
team. Wendt adds that ‘‘We are not even supposed to exchange
gifts with people or groups we escort. But we are certainly not
nonpartisan in the sense of not caring about the struggle for
change and a better life here. That wouldn’t be humanly pos-
sible in a situation like Guatemala.’
A 1988 evaluation of PBI’s Guatemala record comments on this
difficult question of nonpartisanship and justice: ‘‘The only
. people who need or want the team’s protection,’ this report
notes, ‘‘are opponents of the status quo or people who are per-
ceived as opponents by those currently in power.’ Hence the
team is necessarily giving support to one side in an unequal
conflict. It has never been possible to deal with all sectors of
Guatemalan society on the same terms. For example, the rela-
tively frequent contacts with military authorities and the U.S.
embassy that were maintained in 1984 served to create suspicion
on the part of GAM members without making any significant
contribution to the reduction of violence.
The low profile is an important part of the way PBI works.
When PBI people talk about their work, they talk mostly about
what the Guatemalans and Salvadorans they are escorting have
been doing, because that is really the point of PBI’s work.
PBI’s Central America representative Julio Quan is fond of say-
ing, ‘‘When you use a nonviolent methodology to resolve con-
Report on Guatemala
Guatemala is the Bermuda Triangle of
the U.S. media: it has the worst human-
rights record in the Western Hemisphere
(yes, even worse than El Salvador) —
over | percent of the Guatemalan pop-
ulation has been murdered by the army
since 1978. Yet these facts remain largely
hidden from the U.S. public. And U.S.
military aid continues to flow.
Since returning from Guatemala two
years ago, I’ve read Report on Guate-
mala to stay informed. It’s the best
single source of current news and anal-
ysis on Guatemala easily available in
the U.S. — and a bargain at S10 a year.
—Jeanne Carstensen
Today, in Washington, the main advocates
of miltary aid to the Guatemalan govern-
ment are liberal Democrats. The people
within the administration who make Central
American policy don’t think much about
Guatemala. They’re obsessed with Nicar-
agua; they look at Guatemala primarily
as a tool, as an instrument to further their
attack on the Sandinistas. The initiative in
Guatemala really lies with the congres-
sional Democrats who, because President
Vinicio Cerezo is a civilian and Christian
Democrat, aire pushing for military aid.
Their theory is that aid will give him lever-
age over the army to control their human
rights abuses — a criminally mistaken
concept.
The U.S. government is the single organ-
ization in the world that has the most hard
evidence about the complicity of the Gua-
temalan Army in the assassinations and
disappearances. The CIA has paid: agents
within the Guatemalan Army who report
to them on a regular basis. . . .
People in the U.S. embassy have been tell-
ing me this for many years, ever since I’ve
been going to Guatemala. They will never
say it on the record, they will never speak’
for attribution, but if you get the Defense
Attaché talking on background he may
say, as one senior military official said to
me, in 1986, ‘Yes, we've known all along
that it was the Army doing the assassina-
tions. It would be a crime against history
to say otherwise. That’s what they were
doing during the Lucas period, that’s what
they were doing under Rios Montt, under
Mejia . . . basically a policy of scorched
earth. Sure, we knew that.”
Report on Guatemala
Daniéle Rossdeutscher, Editor
$10/year (4 issues) from GNIB,
P. O. Box 28594, Oakland, CA
94604; 415/835-0810
_
OSS ASV ASD ASS OSV ASD ASD OSG OV SS AA SD A OG ASD OG ASD OY AS AD AY OY SD SD OS GS
‘
ee Er er 2 ee
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flict, it is those involved in the conflict who must resolve it. Our
duty is to facilitate the process.’’ Because they have succeeded in
keeping attention focused on the groups they work with instead
of on themselves, their own solid record of accomplishment has
been largely overlooked. PBI strives to stay in the background,
and, ironically, by doing so it has unintentionally managed to
keep itself overworked and underfunded.
\ \ } E BELIEVE that all conflicts are within the purview of
the peace brigades despite the present human and ma-
terial limits of the organization.’ Despite the pressures of their
work, the people on PBI’s Central America teams tend to think
and talk expansively. They express enormous satisfaction and
even greater hope, and every one of them says that PBI needs
more people working in more places around the world.
‘‘Groups like PBI could be working in a hundred countries —
and they should be,” says Julio Quan. ‘‘They don’t have to be
part of PBI. Other groups can learn from what we’re doing and
go from there. What we do can be done elsewhere, by us or by
others — and not just in the Third World.”
At least one First World locale was seriously considered for a
PBI program. In 1987, PBI sent observers to Arizona and New
Mexico to study the so-called Hopi-Navajo land ‘‘dispute’’
before the Reagan administration backed down from its an-
nounced plans to take Navajo lands by force and transfer them
to oil and coal interests that controlled the Hopi Tribal Council.
“Violence is endemic in most of the world,’ says Quan, ‘‘and
the approach that PBI uses can be adapted and used against
violence anywhere.”
In Sri Lanka, with PBI support, Thai Buddhist leader Sulak
Sivaraksa has sponsored negotiations, retreats and refugee-
assistance programs involving both Tamils and Sinhalese, the
two ethnic groups that are engaged in a bloody civil war. In
PBI’s Israel-Palestine project, funded by PBI Europe, Canadian
Maxine Nunn, an experienced negotiator and peace activist
who knows the region, is now working in Jerusalem and the
West Bank. Nunn and PBI were encouraged to begin a project
in the Holy Land by Palestinian nonviolence advocate Mubarak
Awad and peace-seeking scholars at Jerusalem’s Beersheba
University.
The world’s governments have been unable to achieve peace.
This failure is certainly related to the billions spent on war and
preparations for it. If just a small fraction of this ‘‘defense’’
spending were used to harness the idealism of the world’s peo-
ple in an international human-rights force based on the Peace
Brigades model, the pursuit of peace might become less of a
quixotic crusade and more of a practical, evolving effort to
apply peacemaking principles that are known to work. @
A Brief History
of Central America
First published in Madrid in 1985 and
now flawlessly translated into English,
this is the perfect book for North Amer-
icans trying to make sense of the bloody
news seeping out of Central America.
Based on many years of teaching Cen-
tral American history at the national Uni-
versity of Costa Rica, Perez-Brignoli’s
book is concise without being oversim-
plified. Unlike so many latin American
histories, it builds from facts to interpreta-
tion rather than the other way around.
The writing is clear and the lessons point-
ed. It explains the convoluted history of
the region between Mexico and Panama
which was once the Spanish colonial
kingdom of Guatemala, and which after
its independence in 182] was briefly
and imperfectly amalgamated as the
Central American Federation between
1830 and 1839.
Most important for North Americans, the
book presents the varied histories of to-
day's Central American republics ’’from
within’’ rather than as the mere results of
United States intervention in the Carib- —
bean. That intervention is covered in a
section provocatively entitled ‘Big Neigh-
bor, Good Stick.’’ Professor Perez-Brignoli
sees solid support for dictatorships as
the flip side of Franklin Roosevelt’s much-
touted Good Neighbor policy. The his-
torical record supports his cold view.
Somosa, Ubico, Hernandez Martinez,
Carias, and later Trujillo and Batista,
names not familiar to most North Amer-
icans but paintully familiar to Caribbean
peoples, were all at one time considered
among the best of our “good neighbors.”’
In the end, the hand of the U.S. State
Department always obeyed strategic
considerations. This is why there was un-
conditional support for all the region’s
‘repressive regimes, such as that given to
Somosa in Nicaragua. (By 1979, the
Somosa family possessed one-third of all
the assets in the Nicaraguan economy!).
In the last chapter, the current situation is
starkly presented: by 1982, the five small
Central American republics were sliding
deeper into poverty. Their foreign debt —
has more than quadrupled. None of
these countries can meet its heavy
foreign debt payments without a sub-
stantial increase in export prices. Through
debt payments and capital flight, vital
resources are being drained from an
already poor region. Even in fortunate
Costa Rica, the living conditions of the
majority have worsened. Only U.S. aid
is keeping that nation afloat.
As the Brief History sadly notes:
‘Democracy has never emerged from
suffering and desperation.”’
—Randolph Delehanty
: |
The native population was afflicted by
epidemics, particularly the great one of
Matlazahuatl of 1576-1577, and by the
harsh conditions of their work and daily
life. Their numbers decreased steadily
throughout the latter half of the sixteenth
century. That population vacuum, especially
severe in Nicaragua and around the Gulf
of Nicoya, fostered Spanish immigration
and settlements in the highlands of Costa
Rica. The founding of Cartago in 1564
ends the first stage of the Conquest. From
north to south, in the highlands and along
the Pacific slopes, colonial domination was
complete. The same was not true, however,
along the tropical forests on the Atlantic _
Coast. For several more centuries these
would continue to have a rough frontier
character and remain unexplored and
dangerous.
A Brief History
of Central America
Hector Perez-Brignoli, 1989; 232 pp.
$9.95 ($11.95 postpaid) from
University of California Press, 2120
Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720;
800/822-6657
(or Whole Earth Access).
The Handbook of
Non-Violence
An encyclopedia of war and peace, in-
cluding theories of warfare, military and
nonviolent leaders, significant modern
battles and nonviolent confrontations,
tactics, and key terms. Even more than a
‘Handbook of Nonviolence,”’ it’s an in-
troduction to theories of conflict and
defense. Aldous Huxley’s 1937 classic,
An Encyclopedia of Pacifism, from which
author Robert Seeley takes his format
and inspiration, adds historical depth
to understanding the development of
nonviolence.
Don’t be put off by the encyclopedia
format. | read it cover to cover.
—Jeanne Carstensen
[Suggested by Brian Wilson]
Battlefield: Traditionally the word battle-
field has implied a place where armies
met and fought, relatively isolated from
civilians and in a limited space. Today that
use of the term is obsolete. Now a battle-
field may encompass an entire European
country, and combat is in no way isolated
from the civilian population.
As it happens this particular abuse of
language serves a political purpose. By
speaking of battlefields, politicians and
military officers arguing for more weapons
and money can conjure up visions of tradi-
tional military glory and somehow give the
impression that combat, death, and de-
struction of property all happen somewhere
else. This is easy for many in the United
States to believe because since the Civil
Pueblo to People
1989 Field Guide to
Citizens’ Diplomacy
A mail-order catalog of products from
Central America and a guide to non-
governmental organizations rolled into
one, Pueblo to People’s effort represents
a growing trend in nonviolent economic
action in Central America. Nearly 50
percent of the money you pay for the
clothing, blankets, hammocks and other
items offered in this catalog goes directly
to the producers in Guatemala, Fl Sal-
vador, and other countries. The money
gets to those who really need it and
36 WHOLE
\
PALM-LEAF HATS
Finely crafted by the
Maya Quiche Indians of
Guatemala. Braided palm
leaves sewn in an overlap- |
ping spiral, Practically in-
destructible: waterproof,
washable, resilient, Easily
shaped. For proper fit mea-
sure carefully around head
where hat is usually worn,
even if you know size. Black
band included. For colorful
band see Toto Sashes below.
Mujer (left) Item # hm
Chicago (right) Item # he
New Orleans (top) Item # hn
$25.00
The Handbook
of Non-Violence
Robert Seeley, 1986; 344 pp.
$8.95 ($11.45 postpaid) from
Chicago Review Press, Inc., 814 N.
Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610;
312/337-0747
(or Whole Earth Access).
War there has been no combat whatever
on U.S. soil. Wars have always happened
“over there.’
Civil Disobedience: In modern times civil
disobedience has been an important part
of the American tradition and of the world-
wide nonviolent tradition. Many earlier
actions in the American Revolution were
nonviolent, planned violations of British
laws which the colonists considered unjust.
The antislavery movement, the Under-
ground Railroad, much of the early labor
movement, and the modern movements
for social change all relied heavily on civil
disobedience as part of their witness.
The most famous and influential theorist of
civil disobedience was Henry David
Thoreau. His essay ‘’On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience”’ (1849), influenced Gandhi,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and, in various
ways, thousands of others... .
t
allows communities to establish depen-
dable livelihoods, and folks up north get
educated and, hopetully, directly in-
volved themselves.
If you frequent flea markets and craft fairs
where world travelers sell their goods,
you can beat these prices, but not by
much. And you probably won't tind such
a wide selection. | —Jeanne Carstensen
[Suggested by luke Miljevich]
1989 Field Guide to
Citizens’ Diplomacy
Catalog free from Pueblo to People,
1616 Montrose, Houston, TX 77006;
800/843-5257
TOTO SASHES
Happy designs handwoven
in Totonicapan, Guatemala,
ina style sometimes referred.
to as “spirit weaving.” Great
as a narrow belt or hatband.
50” x 1”. 100% cotton.
Pastel Item # shnpa
Bright Item # shnbr $ 5.00
RMR Ss WR ee BRE Ds Bi) Ara
Powerful Peacemaking
Gandhi taught that nonviolence is all-
pervasive. A commitment to nonviolence
is more than acting nonviolently in any
given conllict; it’s also a commitment to
the creation of a nonviolent society. A
theory of nonviolent revolution is evolving
that encompasses the broad institutional,
economic, and social changes needed
to dismantle the war system on which
our society is now based.
In Powerful Peacemaking, George
lakey lays out a flexible five-step model
for bringing about these fundamental
changes, on the individual and societal
level, with lots of historical examples.
lakey’s twenty years’ experience in the -
trenches of nonviolent action puts inspir-
ation, reality, and guts behind his words. °
—Jeanne Carstensen
[Suggested by Maralise Hood and
Julio Quan]
Powerful Peacemaking
George Lakey, 1987; 246 pp.
$12.95 (514.70 postpaid) from
New Society Publishers, P. O. Box 582,
Santa Cruz, CA 95061; 800/333-9093
(or Whole Earth Access).
We all need means of producing goods
and services, we need measures to ward
off attack and domination, and we need
support for positive self-definition. These
are individual needs which are also com-
munity needs, and insofar as a nation is a
community (through shared tradition and
values), a nation also has these needs.
As long as the military continues fo fill
these societal functions, it cannot be dis-
lodged, no matter what the bad ‘‘side-
effects’ of militarism may be. A society
will support disastrous policies as long as
they meet these functional needs. Germans,
for example, continued to support Hitler
despite the terrible punishment they were
taking in the Second World War. They did
so because his movement was meeting
needs for identity, economy, and security
better than any existing alternatives. Only
with their leader dead and their cities in
rubble did general compliance with Nazism
dissolve. Other peoples, similarly, will go
along with policies which take the heart out
of the economy, increase the chance of
nuclear holocaust, and sink us in despair
— if there are no functional alternatives.
~
oe
Se ei ST Se Sayre ripe — rey! jon Sea oie a |
7
Re ey PS oe Oe ee ee
ye Se ee ee
SOL
The sheer north face of Kailas rises 5,000 feet straight up in a frozen monolith. Just to see
a lifetime.
Civilian-Based Defense
Also referred to as social defense, civil-
ian-based defense (CBD) works through
the coordinated noncooperation of a
population with an invading force. Such
a resistance happened spontaneously
when Czechoslovakia was invaded by
Warsaw Pact armies in 1968 and suc-.
ceeded for eight months.
The widening recognition, that nuclear
deterrence fails to provide national
security and of the need of small nations
to protect themselves from invasion is
fueling international interest in CBD and
other forms of alternative security.
This newsletter reports on a growing
international movement.
—Jeanne Carstensen
The first assumption of ‘common security’
is that, in the nuclear age, threatening our
adversaries dangerously undermines our
own security. We propose ‘‘transarming’”’
from an offensive to a strictly non-offensive,
non-provocative defense system, empha-
sizing weapons that protect but cannot
reach others’ borders.
‘
Five years ago, these concepts were vir-
tually unheard of. Only one year ago,
non-offensive defense seemed like a vi-
sionary step toward more sustainable
Kailas is a blessing; to circumambulate the mountain once is said to erase the sins of
global security, advocated mostly by West-
European peace researchers and retired
military officials.
Now, non-offensive defense is being dis-
cussed at every level of the current security
debate — on the front page of the New
York Times, in Gorbachev's speeches, in
an op-ed piece by Secretary of Defense
Carlucci, in a special issue of Bulletin of
the Atomic Scientists, and in most major
scholarly journals of the field.
Civilian-Based Defense:
News & Opinion
Melvin G. Beckman, Philip D.
Bogdonoff, and Robert Holmes
$25/year (6 issues) from Civilian-
Based Defense, P. O. Box 31616,
Omaha, NE 68131; 402/558-2085
Guatenala Rainbow
e The Sacred Mountain
of Tibet
Light. Violent-bright on the 18,000-foot
plains of Tibet. luscious and thick on the
colored cloth of the Mayan people in
Guatemala. Open these books and let
yourself be transported. They’re like
holding slide shows in your lap. Or
a dream.
Guatemala Rainbow is a book of large
color photographs (see back cover) of
the impossibly bright cloth woven by the
indigenous people of Guatemala. Pho-
tographer Gianni Vecchiato’s tight, loving
camera searches out detail after detail in
the cloth, propelling the viewer into the
living heart of Mayan culture today.
In a remote corner of western Tibet, the
sacred mountain Kailas rises to 22,000
feet above a desolate desert landscape
to scrape the sky. For thousands of years
Buddhist, Hindu, Bonpo, and Jain wor-
shippers have made the difficult pilgrim-
age to circumambulate the ‘‘navel of the
earth’’ and visit the monasteries built
precariously in its shadow. Despite the
almost total destruction of these mon-
asteries by the Chinese occupying Tibet,
the pilgrimages continue. The authors of
The Sacred Mountain of Tibet, a
photographer and writer, share their
journey to Kailas and capture the raw
divinity of the landscape and the Tibet-
an people.
Both these books celebrate the perse-
verence of indigenous culture. They make
me cherish life. —Jeanne Carstensen
Guatemala Rainbow
Gianni Vecchiato, 1989; 128 pp.
$22.95 ($25.45 postpaid) from
Pomegranate Artbooks, P. O. Box
808022, Petaluma, CA 94975;
707/765-2005
(or.Whole Earth Access).
The Sacred Mountain
of Tibet
Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran,
1989; 128 pp. ;
$24.95 ($26.95 postpaid) from
Park Street Press, One Park Street, i
Rochester, VT 05767; 802/767-3174
(or Whole Earth Access). .
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA.94965 } 37
BACKSCAT TER
_ Echoes from readers back
to Whole Earth Review
(27 Gate Five Road,
Sausalito, California 94965)
We pay $15 for every letter we publish.
More dieting wisdom
As a reformed dieter, | found Sarah Van-
derschaf’s reviews in your Fall 1989 issue
(p. 100) of great interest. Here are a cou-
ple more books that | think should be read
by anyone who has (or thinks he/she has)
a “weight problem’’:
Alive and Fat and Thinning in America, by
Theodore Isaac Rubin. Rubin (of Lisa and
David fame) is an insightful, compassionate,
and eloquent psychiatrist. He was once guilty
of the thoroughly smug and obnoxious The
Thin Book by a Formerly Fat Psychiatrist.
In Alive and . . . ,written a few years later
after he (inevitably) regained most of the
weight he had lost, he comes to terms
with his own biases about fatness and thin-
ness, and concludes that fat represents a
much healthier state of mind.
It's Not a Sin to be Fat, by Shelley Bovey.
This recent book, by a (size 24) British
author who specializes in health and alter-
native medicine, is published by Pandora in
Britain and may not be easy to find in the
US. Her analysis of attitudes towards
obesity and weight control is right on
target, and she has researched medical and
statistical studies to uncover some surpris-
ing conclusions. (For example, a long-term
health study of the Norwegian population
showed that “overweight” people had the
highest chance of living to age 65, and that
“morbidly obese’’ people had a higher sur-
vival rate than the very slender!)
Considering my own experience, and that
of many of my friends, I’ve concluded that
dieting causes more weight problems than
it solves. At age 12 (5’ 3”, 125 Ibs), | was
pronounced “overweight” and put on a
diet by my doctor. For years | followed the
same pattern: I'd starve myself down to
what | considered an acceptable weight,
maintain it precariously for a while, and
then creep steadily up to a point 5 or 10
lbs more than where I'd started. After 25
years, I'd gained 50 lbs and my self-esteem
was zilch. One day | ran across a photo of
myself at age 12, and realized what my
doctor’s real problem was: | had passed
puberty, but a girl my age wasn’t supposed
to have tits and ass!
I’ve quit dieting, and just try to eat sensibly.
But my metabolism has been permanently
damaged by all those years of dieting: ac-
cording to the charts, my average calorie
consumption should maintain me at 20 Ibs
lighter than | am! I’m sure that if | had
never dieted, | never would have had a
weight problem in the first place. And it
[ 38 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
makes me very angry that doctors are still
recommending dieting as the cure-all, even
for children who are younger than | was
when | started.
Paula Lozar
Vienna, Austria
The Whole Earth Channel?
The Whole Earth image is very, very beau-
tiful but the problem with it is that it’s
static. Frozen in time.
What about the idea of a TV channel that
broadcasts live pictures of the Earth from a
satellite? Wouldn’t that be a nice thing to
be able to flip to? Meditative, etc.
Maybe some music. Some zooms into par-
ticularly interesting swirls and stuff.
Is this sort of thing possible? | know I'd sure
as hell subscribe to the Whole Earth Channel.
‘Ben Bochner
Eugene, Oregon
Dustbugger
| thought you may be interested in a new
use for an old tool:
Here in Spain, most of the houses do not
have window screens. The flies, while not
of the biting variety, can get to be over-
whelming. My wife uses a Dustbuster port-
able vacuum cleaner to suck them out of
the air while they are buzzing around. She
never misses, and is able to step outside
and, open the vacuum cleaner to let them
out unharmed but shaken. She also has fun
doing it, and the neighbor kids are always
impressed.
D. G. Carey
Spain
A perfectly clear collapse
Jaron Lanier (interviewed in the Fall ’89
issue) appears to be examining the virtues
of “Virtual Reality’’ with blinders on. Can
you imagine a significant percentage of the
populace spending a major amount of time
squirming around while encased in those
suits, etc.’ It goggles the mind! Communi-
cation will be so perfect that it will be un-
necessary to talk about the ensuing actual
breakdown of social structures.
Aryt Alasti
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Video without TV
Regarding the $595 Home Life video
player/monitor [the VCR that doesn’t
receive TV signals —WER #64, p. 130] —
a cheaper alternative is to buy a used TV
from Salvation Army, etc., & simply epoxy
the knob to a blank channel. A used video
player completes this cheapo nines. for
well under $200.
John Benecki
Portland, Oregon
Before you pant,
read this rant
Thought I’d pass this on to you as evidence
of the state of mind and humor among
some of our young adolescents. This was
discovered during an 8th grade study hall. |
saw five young girls furiously hand-copying
from a single sheet of paper. Thinking they
- were copying someone's homework | strolled
back to investigate. WRONG! After much
blushing, denial, and laughter, one of the
girls showed me what had them working so
diligently. After almost falling on the floor
myself, | promised they could finish if |
could make a copy (I do teach Family Life
[sex ed] after all). A deal was struck.
On one level, this is crude sexist humor
which has been around forever. But on
another this tells me all our talk about
responsibility and sexually transmitted
disease is getting through with humor and
creatitivity. Who knows?
“Mr. M”
Vermont
Out of our National Condom Week, Our
Friend, Robbie Rubber gives us the Follow-
ing Advice:
|. Cover your stump before you hump
2. Before you attack her, wrap your wacker
3. Don't be silly, protect your willy
4. Before you blast her, cover your
bushmaster
5. Don’t be a loner, cover your boner
6. When in doubt, shroud your spout
7. If your not going to sack it go home
and wack it
8. You can’t go wrong if you shield
your dong
9. If she’s spunky cover your monkey
10. Before you bag her sheath your dagger
I]. It'll be sweeter if you wrap your peter
12. If you dip between her thighs, be sure
to condomize
3. To save embarrassment later cover
~ your gator
14. She wont get sick if you wrap your dick
15. If you go into heat package your meat
16. While your undressing venus, dress
your penis
17. When you take off her pants and blouse,
suit up that trouser mouse
.18. never deck her with an unwraped
pecker
19. Especially in December gift wrap
your member
20. Before the van starts rockin make sure
your cock gets a stockin
21. Don’t be a fool, Vulcanize your tool ©
22. The right selection, sack your erection.
23. Wrap it in foil before you check her oil
24. A crank in Armor will never harm her
Where to find American
foods overseas
“Travel Globally, Eat Locally.’ But what
about those far-from-home cravings for the
foods you grew up with? When you're
——— ee
Ne Fe
*
frantic to taste a memory of home, try the
local Asian foods store. | just discovered
not only barbecue sauce but even peanut
butter by shopping at my local Chinese-
Vietnamese shop in Chalons-sur-Marne,
population 60,000 including suburbs. In the
midst of champagne and crepes, I’m a
smiling cowboy.
Todd Strong
Chalons-sur-Marne, France
Doggerel
A year ago a good friend of mine bought
me a gift subscription of WER and, in a
spontaneous burst of gratitude-driven semi-
creativity, this little piece of doggerel was
penned on my thank you note to her. This
year | maintained the chain by passing along
a gift sub to my daughter. (No thank you
card, with or without verse, yet, but she’s
still a bit puzzled by the gift.)
Anyway, | thought someone there might
enjoy it, too.
You Are Old, Arlo Guthrie
(with humblest apologies to Lewis Carroll)
“You are old, Arlo Guthrie,” the young
man said,
“and your hair has become very white;
and yet you incessantly sing those strange
songs —
do you think, at your age, it is right?”
“In my youth,’ said the bard to the boy
with a grin,
“all these songs were exciting and new.
“But these days the only old hippies tuned in
are the folks who read Whole Earth
Review.’
“You are old, Ken Kesey,’ the young man
exclaimed,
“and have grown most uncommonly fat;
and yet you lay claim to Merry Prankster
fame.
“Pray, what is the reason of that?”’
“In my youth,” Ken replied, “we were all
on the bus.
We ascribed to the cosmic view.
But now all my pranksters are gathering dust
except those reading Whole Earth Review.’
“You are old, Mom and Dad,” said the boy
with a sigh,
“and ought to be acting your age.
But you spend all your time like two kids
in their prime.
Pray, what keeps you supple and sage?”
“In our youth,” said the two, “we were
with-it and hip,
we found it was easy to do.
But grandparents now, we can still keep
our grip
with the help of our Whole Earth Review!"
Dale Drake
Martinsville, Indiana
Anti-teenager
| was surprised that there was not more
FUNCTNON
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MAINA |}——____1 |
STORAGE a,
NORMAL FLOW
Of OPERATION
SURGE CONTROL
DEVICE =
PERIPHERALS
(HARDWARE) |—— >
DESUGGING Toot
Mouse —
BACKUP
SYSTEM
Florey Pisk
This urban folk art has swept through offices around the country. Many have sent it to us.
Don Ryan saw it recently tacked up in his rural neighborhood hardware store.
(any?) stuff [in your last issue, #65] about
teenagers in Japan. With the rise of Japan
as an economic power their attitudes are
going to carry more weight than some
others. They will also be the first to ex-
perience supporting a large population
of retirees.
| recently came to the coniclusion that in
many ways Americans have: a real strong
anti-teenager attitude. | was thinking about
a lot of cynical remarks made about the
Rolling Stones’ recent tour and got to think-
ing about the way in which rock musicians
are criticized. Why is it that they are always
thought of as ridiculous and doing some-
thing useless. No one makes similar criticisms
of say people who make music for six year
olds. In the WER there is a comment
about Madonna's music having ‘!0 cent
lyrics’, would someone say the same about
Sesame Street songs? | think each type of
music is relevant to the age group, but
Americans can’t accept that about teen-
agers. Movies are another example. People
feel like it is sensible to criticize teen-ager
audience movies as if they were supposed
to be something they aren’t. No one makes
the same kind of comments about Disney
movies, again each is relevant to the
market audience.
One trivia sideline: in Japan you have music
shows on TV where the stage is shared by
Lawrence Welk types and Japanese rock
bands. As | thought about this | realized
that the Japanese accept teen-agers more
than Americans. A lot of the tension just
doesn’t exist here. |
John Elemans
Japan
Don’t acquiesce
on population growth
Kevin Kelly’s editorial “Apocalypse Jugger-
naut, goodbye’”’ (WER #65, p. 38) is cer-
tainly provocative. However, there are
enough misstatements and dubious asser-
tions in it to leave Kelly’s conclusions in
considerable doubt. Some of the errors are
quite minor (some confusion about the
terms “zero population growth’’ and “demo-
graphic transition,” for example), but others
are more substantial, and more disturbing.
First, some of the minor points.
“Zero population growth’’ means exactly
what it says: no growth in overall population.
“Replacement year’’ marks the date when
(hypothetically) the reproductive-age pop-
ulation begins producing only enough children
to replace itself. Since this reproductive-age
cohort of the population is larger than the
cohort which produced it (being born when
the population was still growing) the overall
population will continue to grow until the
replacement year cohort reaches old age.
This is “stationary population”, which is the
same thing as “zero population growth’’. So,
if current population projections are correct
(and they are not predictions, but projec-
tions, a point I'll get to later), “zero pop-
ulation growth”’ will be achieved about 150
years from now, not 50 as stated by Kelly.
The “demographic transition’’ does not
refer to a shift from a 2-tier to a 3-tier
culture. Rather, it refers to the historical
observation that, in the developed countries,
improving economic conditions produced, ‘a
drop in the death rate, followed (after a
time-lag) by a drop in the birth rate, which
led, ultimately, to low overall growth rates.
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 t 39
It also refers to the theory that this same
pattern will occur in the less-developed
countries. This theory is not universally
accepted by demographers.
Towards the end of his piece, Kelly notes
that “population predictions’”’ tend to be
worse than “the worst weather forecast’.
Here again, there is a confusion of ter-
minology. Projections, such as those from
the Population Reference Bureau and the
World Bank that Kelly refers to, are not
predictions. A prediction is a statement
about what one expects to actually happen
at some point in the future; a projection is
merely a statement about what would hap-
pen “if current trends continue’? — without
any modification or change. Demographers
recognize that population trends will be sub-
ject to change over the course of time.
Therefore, few demographers are willing to
hazard predictions about the future of pop-
ulation change. But they are generally will-
ing to offer projections, which can be of
some use to policy makers.
The errors | have discussed up to this point
are relatively minor, and somewhat tech-
nical. Kelly makes more serious mistakes
when he gets into the ideas of Malthus and
Julian Simon.
According to Kelly, the fact that food pro-
duction has increased, and that humans
deliberately self-regulate their populations,
contradicts Malthus (and, by implication, the
neo-Malthusians whom Kelly’s real disagree-
ment is with). This is not correct. Malthus
recognized that human ingenuity could in-
crease food production, although he believed
that, ultimately, the rate of growth in food
production would lag behind potential pop-
ulation growth. The word “potential’’ in
the previous sentence brings me to the
second point. Malthus wrote: “ . . . that
population, when unchecked, increases in a
geometrical progression . .-. ’’ (Malthus,
p238). The key phrase here is “when un-
checked’. Malthus recognized, and in fact
spent considerable time examining, the
various checks which prevented population
from growing at geometrical rates. He
classified these into two categories: positive .
checks and preventive checks. The pre-
ventive checks include what Kelly calls self
regulation.
Malthus was mistaken in many details, but he
got one basic idea right: At any given time,
available food and subsistence resources set
an upper limit to population size. Innovation
and improved efficiency may, over time,
raise that upper limit, and the population
may not rise to meet it, but the limit exists
and cannot be exceeded. This is obviously
true. If the number of people exceeds the
food available to feed them, some people
will die, whether through starvation, food
riots, or other causes.
Malthus also understood, although he didn’t
emphasize it, that there is an ultimate limit
to human numbers. What that magic number
{ 40 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
a pele EE
BY AM / MERE IT 1S! Yosssey |
a] whether some fish stocks will recover. Per _
capita grain production has not risen since ~
R. Crumb
might be, Malthus did not venture to guess.
But it is certainly possible to set upper
bounds on the human population. For ex-
ample, the mass of the human population
must be significantly less than the mass of
the earth — unless we intend to eat and
breathe one another. And such factors as
the amount of carbon or other elements
essential to life will set even lower bounds
on the maximum possible population. Of
course, long before such limits are encoun-
tered, environmental and social effects
would put an end to population growth.
Which brings me to the dubious ideas of
Julian Simon. | hardly know where to begin.
Perhaps | should first direct the interested
reader to several worthwhile (though far
from exhaustive) critiques of the writings
of Simon and his followers by Grant (1982),
Daly (1982), and Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1985).
As to some of the specific points cited by
Kelly: 1) Simon claims that increasing pop-
ulation is linked to increasing innovation
throughout history. First of all, any such
claims must be highly suspect for the simple
reason that, except for very recent times,
there is no reliable data — often there is
no data at all. And for the modern era, the
data provide no evidence for any such cor-
relation: Africa has the highest growth rate
in the world at present, yet it is hardly a
hotbed of invention or innovation. Northern
and Western Europe, a region of great
technical advancement, has a population
growth rate neai- zero. And in Asia, the
most dynamic nations are those with the
lowest rates of population growth — Japan,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea.
2) Simon says the “real’’ costs of all re-
sources are dropping. But by “real’’ costs,
he only means monetary costs adjusted for
inflation. The costs in terms of pollution,
land destruction, and other environmental
damage are not included. Consider mineral
resources. As consumption has gone up,
lower grades of ore have had to be used.
This has meant that larger land areas have
been disrupted by mining, and that the ore
has had to undergo more intensive process-
ing. While economies of scale in mining and
innovative refining processes have kept the
monetary costs of mineral production low,
the same cannot: be said of environmental
costs. The renewable resources are even
ee ee” al a aa
more_ problematical. The production of
many fisheries is down, and it is questionable
1984, and began dropping in 1986 (Brown
et al. 1989, pl6). And much of the increase
in crop production has come only as a
result of practices which decrease the long-
term productivity of the land through ero-
sion, salinization, depletion of the water
table, and so on. Facts such as these make
it hard to argue that the “real” costs of
resources are declining. 3) Kelly writes that, —
“People are not drains on the wealth and
resources of a nation, but the producers of
it’’ Of course people are producers, but
they are also consumers. And both popula-
tion size and growth rates affect the balance
between production and consumption. A
"rapidly growing population has a larger pro-
portion of people below the working age,
and so has fewer workers per consumer.
This necessarily leads to a lower standard
of living than could be achieved at a lower,
or zero, growth rate. What is more, the
impact of a population increases faster than
its numbers. And as people aspire to higher
standards of living, their impact is further
compounded. All in all, the realities of
population growth don’t match Simon's
rosy view.
While a peak population of 10.8 billion
would not be as catastrophic as an even
larger population, it would still cause quite
extensive damage and disruption to both
the natural world and to human society.
Such a prospect suresly does not merit the
calm acquiescence that Kelly gives it. | am
surprised that Kevin Kelly, after his long
association with WER, could be so easily
seduced by the faulty thinking, selective evi-
dence, and doubtful claims of Julian Simon.
WER has, over the years, published a
number of important articles on population
and the environment. | only wish Kevin Kelly
had taken them more to heart.
Peter Roberts ’
Westminster, MD
_My long affiliation with WER has taught
me to be suspicious of things that we
hold close to the heart. When | open-
mindedly questioned the apocalyptic
vision so much in my circle, | was sur-
prised to find it right only about half the
time: it is right about the environment,
and wrong about people. My own decade
of living in various developing countries
convinced me that apocalypists have
placed their faith in the wrong boogey-
man. Is it possible to have a sceniario of
a future Earth with high population and
high global prosperity? | found it quite
thinkable.
How likely such a scenario is depends on
many of the points that Peter Roberts
- brings up in his thoughtful letter. Only by
the kind of things WER promotes could
such a scenario come about.
Kevin Kelly
i
a lai ne
c a “oe ‘
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Steven and Janet Gould to Cotuit Library, Cotuit, MA.
Aeolia to Dunstable Free Public Library, Dunstable, MA;
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Jose, Costa Rica, C.A.
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These libraries are waiting to be adopted:
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27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 ; 4 f
Gossip ner |
Look for our name in other magazines this
season. The March 1990 issue of Harper's
will feature a “‘Harper’s Forum”’ that took
place in an electronic backroom of the
WELL. The Harper's editors invited teenage
hackers and phone phreaks to join the resi-
dent nerds and aging hipsters on the WELL
in a roundtable discussion of the civics of
cracking into computer systems. In ten days
of discussions 200,000 words were posted.
The WELL felt courageous letting self-
confessed crackers onto the system (does
one invite moose into the pantry?). The
hope was to steer the discussion to the
interesting question, “Hey hackers, what
would you do to make the WELL less crack-
able?”’ Unfortunately for us, and for Harper's,
the Harper’s editors killed that topic. (They
would have gotten a much sharper story
because of the concrete example at hand.)
Former guest editor Sallie Tisdale, who has
been writing regularly for the New Yorker
and Harper's, will have a piece about the
mentally handicapped in an upcoming issue
of Harper’s sometime this summer. As part
of her research for that article she arranged
to play in one of Ron Jones’ pulse-jumping
basketball games (see ‘‘B-Ball,’’ WER #56,
p. 30). It was The Recreational Center for
the Handicapped versus Whole Earth Re-
view, and a game to remember. On their
side, four teams of hollering, arm-waving
players in all the most extreme shapes and
sizes humans come in. A whole gymful of
loose cannon balls. Some of them repeat-
edly swish shots into the basket like robots.
Most of them have literally one thing on
their mind: score. All of them hug every-
body. A lot. After each basket.
On our side, stiff people with chair jobs.
The game was close. About 100-17. We
came in third (after the cheerleaders). Ron,
in sunglasses, presented us with a custom-
ized bowling trophy for our third-place
award. As art director Kathleen said, ‘‘It’s
a good thing they cheated, because they
would have beat us anyway.” The best part:
the boogie-down disco dancing immediately
after the final bell.
A couple of Whole Earth long-timers have
left to chase their next dream. After 12
years manning various posts, Dick Fugett
traded a 60-mile commute for a down-the-
street job doing bookkeeping on a Macintosh
for local small businesses. Dick's official
duties at Whole Earth ranged from Sub-
scription Guru, to General Purpose Clerk,
to Far-Ranging Factotum. He’s promised to
continue reviewing for us. Jeanne Carsten-
sen turned over the weekly Whole Earth -
Chronicle Column to Signal editor Richard
Kadrey. Jeanne is headed to the rewarding
(Left) Susan Rosberg hefts our third-place
trophy in the Whole Earth/Rec Center bas-
ketball playoffs.
(Above) Ron Jones dances after his team’s
smashing victory.
(Right) The Rec Center Red Team warms up.
i 42 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
lands of Costa Rica to write, report, and
research. There’s an ace correspondent
for the nabbing, there.
It’s a new decade. Jean Dixon is making
predictions in the National Enquirer (‘Elvis
to Return to Soviet Union in 1993’). High-
priced trend people are milking the admen
of Madison Avenue, charging $40,000 a pop
for guessing the ‘‘name”’ of the next ten
years. What do they know that we don’t? |
polled the folks around the office for their
off-the-top-of-the-head predictions for the
1990s. Here are their brown-bag forecasts.
Corinne answered without hesitation,
“We'll have the first woman president in
1996, and she'll be Republican.’’ Don pre-
dicts, ‘Developed countries will gang up on
the US with economic boycotts, or war, or
both, to prevent us from fouling the planet.
If we don’t die, WER will be a weekly.”
Richard N. sees ‘‘the return of communal
living, but this time by old people.’’ Accord-
ing to Richard S., “In another ten years no
one will work at the Post Office, and get-
ting mail won't be free. You'll have to pay
a monthly fee to have a mail box.”’
“The nineties will be like the eighties only
with more cable TV stations,” concludes
Richard K. “There will be a revolt against
digital — the Analog Backlash. People want
knobs (varying degrees of something) not
All photos by Richard Nilsen
» a) aes oe
buttons (off/on, black or white).’’ John
guesses that by the end of the decade they'll
allow “cussing and bare breasts on network
TV, and most kids won't read.’’ Hank anti-
cipates that doctors will discover inarguable
evidence that computers are harmful to
you physically.
Richard D.: ‘We'll see a whole mess of
nasty immune-related diseases that we'll
suddenly realize are due to environmental
factors.’’ Lori says, ‘Actually, no one will be
able to afford to be sick in the nineties. The
price of health care will drive people from
traditional medicine to a new kind of doctor
who will use, among other things, bona fide
faith and psychic healing.’’ Keith goes fur-
ther: “We'll have national health care by
the end of the decade.”
James has lots of predictions. Claims he,
“T'll be crowned king of the universe. A
silent chain saw will be invented. And because
no one wants a prison in their town, they'll
have floating offshore prisons on old oil
tankers. Lastly, during the nineties the
pendulum will swing back from a Pelagian to
an Augustinian outlook’’ — that is, from
being punished for bad to being rewarded
for good.
Paul says that there'll be rampant nostalgia
for the seventies during the nineties. Tiffy
foresees reruns of Howdy Doody. ‘I’m
predicting a terrorist attack on New York
City, possibly a guerrilla nuclear bomb that
will demolish Wall Street, putting the world
financial system in total chaos,’’ said an op-
timistic David H. Stewart's scenario (futur-
ists are not allowed to predict, he jokes)
unfolds thusly: “The open season on dic-
tators around the world will continue until
there are only a few of them left to remind
us... .”' J. Baldwin says that the nineties
will be a decade of planes falling out of
the sky and bridges falling into rivers, as
America’s aging infrastructure crumbles
unmaintained.
“Big cities will ban automobiles from their
centers. You'll have to pay a toll to drive
downtown,’’ Cliff predicts. Nancy forecasts
the nineties to be a time when you'll have
mandatory recycling. I'm prophesying that
ecology will become a religion and that fun-
damentalists of every faith will become
major environmentalists — think of all the
other ecologically correct things that may
also then become mandatory! Robin pro-
jects there'll be more cults, particularly
cults centered on Gaia and ecology. K.O.
says that if it is anything like last time,
there'll be a lot of predictions of the end of
the world in the nineties. “Also, the animal
righters will ban fur coats for dogs, too.”
Hilarie has a feeling there will be another
major earthquake here, but on an entirely
different faultline. Susan R. says, “By the
end of the nineties my VW Bug will have
300,000 miles on it.”
There you have it. You heard it here first.
—Kevin Kelly
Many of you have been asking why we
do not print our renewal notices and
bills on recycled paper. | am happy to
let you know that as we use up our
existing stock of letters and envelopes,
we will be switching over to printing
on recycled paper (including use of
envelopes with degradable cellulose
windows). Printers are still resistant to
using recycled paper, and our
printer/mailer was no exception. But
we have found a smaller, local printer
who can do the job for us at a reason-
will cost us somewhat more than the
paper we have been using — so to help
us make up for that added cost (as
well as to save the paper used in later
efforts), please respond to our early
billing and renewal efforts rather than
waiting until the last minute.
We are also investigating with our
printer in Missouri the options for
printing the magazine itself on recycled
paper. We'll let you know the results
of those negotiations. —Keith Jordan
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Jay Kinney
Media, Politics
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965 [ 43
POINT FINANCIAL REPORT: 1989
MAGAZINE INCOME
Subscriptions/back issues
Mailing list rental
Direct distribution
Warner (national newsstand)
Book sales
Newspaper column
Contributions
Other
Total Income:
MAGAZINE EXPENSES
Salaries:
Payroll taxes
Writers/contributors
Printing
Subscription fulfillment
Circulation promotion
Direct distribution
Warner (national newsstand)
Vacation/Health insurance
Telephone/postage
Rent/maintenance/utilities
Other costs
Total Expenses:
MAGAZINE PROFIT/LOSS
POINT FOUNDATION
CD-ROM project
Global Business Network
Whole Earth Institute
Whole Earth Review
Total Income:
CD-ROM
Signal
Whole Earth Institute
Global Business Network
Whole Earth Review
Total Expenses:
TOTAL PROFIT/LOSS
The WELL
Income (WELL charges)
Expenses
Payroll
Computer
Sales/marketing
| Office:
Customer support
General/administrative
Total Expenses
PROFIT/LOSS -
i 44 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Ist quarter
$ 69,336
2,459
16,873
13,790
597
1,590
6,401
5,992
117,038
70,844
5,528
7,180
30,380 —
Tiever
6,015
1,614
3,001
2,861
3,544
11,478
10,819
2nd quarter
$ 91,209
2,961
20,134
ry, 702
-675
1,820
9,130
2,899
147,395
61,915
8,068
9,860
28,305
8,817
7,237
un dds.
2,664
1,517
4,586
10,588
15,390
3rd quarter
$185,835
5,418
18,541
16,515
840
1,839
7,281
60,737
6,175
9,155
27,817
20,362
6,635
1,727
2,882
2,477
4,726
11,447
21,235
10,926
247,195
4th quarter
$115,824
5,88]
25,152
9,010
6,355
1,820
2,925
9,766
Total
$462,204
16,719
80,700
595227
7,17
7,069
25,742
29,583
176,733 688,361
59,712
5,288
5,370
27,767
24,157
7,801
1,321
3,054
6,737
3,635
10,912
24,774
253,208
25,059
31,565
114,269
61,313
27,688
5,887
11,601
13,592
16,491
44,425
72,218
161,241 160,172 175,375 180,528 677,316
-44,203
10,000
16.439
117,038
143,477
870
420
9,922
161,241
172,453
-28,976
106,119
36,073
32,338
1,426
5,250
1,324
14,439
90,850
15,269
-12,777
7,754
3,510
147,395
158,659
2,093
13
160,172
162,278
-3,619
107,905
11,038
97,538
10,368
|
71,820
1,875
247,195
249,070
5,288
175,375
180,663
68,407
118,421
45,770
34,446
4,120
8,298
3,497
10,534
106,665
11,756
-3,795
13,852
176,733
190,585
8,338
180,528
188,866
1,719
134,450
52,360
35,694
6,458
8,523
4,53]
11,664
119,229
15,220
11,045
10,000
24,193
19,237
688,361
741,791
870 |
420
15,719
9,935
677,316
704,260
37,531
466,895
176,722
132,617
18,557
28,458
10,253
47,675
414,282
52,613
ee
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and much more! Send $1.00 to: Wise Earth
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BOOKS-ON-DISKS ™ Novels: Baby April
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Anthology (Excerpts, demo), $4. IBM-PC, 5.25”
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IVAN ILLICH FANS, let’s correspond. Phil
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SOsonics — for every human being — every-
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you wish. Example — menstrual pain. Send
SASE and $1.00 for details or $11.00 for 30minute
cassette to SOsonics, Box 1412, Lodi, CA
95241-1412
MEN ATTRACT WOMEN! Discover the power
of K2rysma, a scientifically verified. sexual
pheromone, androstenone, that scentuously
lures women to you like wild! Have the real
chemical, biological passionate advantage.
European import, 80 gram aerosol spray. Com-
plete instructions and free documented report
also enclosed. Guaranteed — period. Other
men are using it, shouldn’t you? Then rush
$27.95 plus $2 shipping to: XTZ Products, P. O.
Box 867461-E, Plano Tx 75086.
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITIES across North
America welcome visitors/potential members.
Live in the country with others who value
equality, ecological responsibility and non-
violence. For our brochure, write: Federation
of Egalitarian Communities, Appletree, Box
5-WER, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Free
($2 appreciated).
BUY SAFER® WHOLESALE & SAVE! Only one
case minimum. Since 1987. Non-Toxic Safer In-
secticidal Soap Concentrate, & more. Flea
Soap for Cats, Dogs, Puppies, Kittens. ““Scan-
mask’’ beneficial, predatory nematodes. Cat-
alog $1.50 refundable. Dealer Inquiries Invited.
Odessa Natural Enterprises (O.N.E.), Dept.
105-3, Post Office Box 537, Odessa, FL 33556-
0537; (813) 920-4477 until 9 PM Eastern
THE WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link): If
you have a computer and modem you can be
part of a unique community of people that
meets online. The Well is divided into con-
ferences that discuss just about anything you
can think of. Mind, work, sexuality, Grateful
Dead, and parenting are just a few. The rates
are $8/month plus $3/hour for online time.
Call 415/332-6106 for online sign-up, or
415/332-4335 to talk with a human being.
FOOT LONG CRAWDADS? Yes! Grow them
yourself, easily. Big profit for $oftshell$!
New fact-filled booklet, 50 pgs. $5.00. Info
SASE. D. R. Wilson, 4040 10th St., Sebastian,
FL 32976
When there was no dream of mine, you
dreamed of me.
COMPLETE SET CoEv/WER (almost). Issues
*one* through 60, minus #27 (Next W.E.C.)
and #40 (missing). $300. Neil J. Rubenking
(415) 647-1863. CompuServe 72241,50. MCImail
326-3042.
GOLDEN THREADS. Contact publication
for Lesbians over 50 (and younger). World-
wide. Sample mailed discreetly, $5. (U.S. $).
OR send SASE for free information. Box
3177, Burlington, VT 05401-0031.
ABB - BEA
be
Abbey, Ed
‘‘Spadefoot Packrat Havahart’’ 63:114
Abramson, Jeffrey B. et al.
Electronic Commonwealth 63:101
Academic American Encyclopedia 63:108
Academic Courseware Exchange 64:123
‘Access to Conservatism’’
Kinney, Jay 65:118
Accuracy in Media
AIM Report 65:119
Acker, Kathy
Blood and Guts in High School 63:83
**Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’ 63:51
Active File Comparator 65:77
Activism
Creating Our Future 65:53
Twenty/Twenty Vision 63:71
Zeta Magazine 65:120
Adopting A Stream 62:41
Adult Children of Alcoholics 63:72
Adventure games, computer
‘Non-Linear Fiction’’ 63:92 .
Adventures in Learning 64:123
‘‘Adventures of an Applied
Ecologist’
Todd, John 62:36
Advertising .
Cash Copy 64:93
**Selling the World”’ 65:36
Africa
Science and Romance of Selected
Herbs Used in Medicine
and Religious Ceremony 64:38
‘‘Age of Endarkenment”’
Ventura, Michael 65:44
Ages of Gaia 62:86
Aging
Age Wave ; 62:85
Growing Old Is Not For Sissies 63:70
Agriculture
**Del Cabo Project’’ 62:60
Family Farming 62:71
“‘More Farmers Not Fewer’’ 62:64
Permaculture 62:63
Time to Reap 65:102
Agroforestry
Tree Crops 64:37
AIM Report 65:119
Alaska
Divided Twins: Alaska
and Siberia 62:26
Alcoholism
‘“Dysfunctional Families’’ 63:72
Almanacs 63:108
Alphabetization of the
Popular Mind 64:122
Aluminum
Artists Anodizing Aluminum 64:91
Amateur Radio Astronomer’s
Handbook 62:43
Amazon
Margaret Mee: In Search of
Flowers of the Amazon Forests 64:15
“‘Seringueiros — The
Rubber Tappers’’ 64:79
i 48 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
INDEX 1989
Designs by Yasaburo Kuwayama, a book of international emblems.
Shamanism, Colonialism, and
the Wild Man 64:12
Where the Gods Reign 64:24
America’s Neighborhood Bats 65:103
American Spirit Natural Tobacco 64:13
Amish :
Riddle of Amish Culture 65:93
‘ANAT’
McLarney, Bill 62:44 |
Anatomy of Change 63:10
And The Ship Sails On 63:102
Andoh, Anthony
Science and Romance of Selected
Herbs Used in Medicine and
Religious Ceremony 64:38
Answering Machine Specialty 64:92
‘Antidotes to Dieting’’
Vandershaf, Sarah 64:100
Antique Rose Emporium 65:103
Antique Tool Collector’s Guide
to Value 65:107
Aphorisms 63:108
‘Apocalypse Juggernaut, goodbye’’
Kelly, Kevin 65:38
Appropriate technology
‘‘Adventures of an Applied
Ecologist’’ 62:36
“ANAIT’”’ 62:44 >
‘Out of the Ark and Into
the World’’ 62:33
‘*Thinking Globally at
Max’s Pot’’ 62:50
Aqua-Level 64:88
Archaeology
Goddesses and Gods of
_. Old Europe 62:126
“Rediscovering the Goddess”’ 62:120
Architecture
‘*Biotecture’’ 64:1
Classic Architectural Birdhouses
and Feeders 62:58
Archival storage
Archival Quality Materials 64:92
Arden, Lynie
Work-at-Home Sourcebook 62:19
Are Your Dental Fillings ~
Poisoning You? 64:51
Argyle, Michael
Psychology of Happiness 64:99
Arizona Handbook 63:130
Armchair Universe 62:88
Arrow Star 63:118.
Art
Art Video Library 64:130
Artists Anodizing Aluminum 64:91
‘*Mail Art Glasnost’”’ 65:68
Quiet Axis 62:29
Art of American Indian Cooking _—_62:79
Artificial intelligence
Daedalus 63:16
Artificial Kid 63:83
Artificial Life 62:88
see also Obsolete Body
Artists Anodizing Aluminum 64:91
Asia
Asiaweek "65:53
“‘Shopping for Buddhas’’ 65:79
Video Night in Kathmandu 65:78
Astronomy
Amateur Radio Astronomer’s
Handbook 62:43
Radio Astronomy 62:43
Athletics
Growing Old Is Not For Sissies 63:70
Atlases
Hammond World Atlas 63:107
HIS index includes the last four issues of Whole Earth Review (#62, #63, #64, #65). It was compiled by David Burnor using File
Maker on a Macintosh. Subject headings are bold, book titles are italic. The authors of books reviewed are also included. The
year’s alphabet guides are selected corporate logos. They are reprinted from Trade Marks & Symbols, Volume I: Alphabetical
—Kevin Kelly
- Botany (continued)
Rand McNally Atlases
Atmosphere
Earth’s Earliest Biosphere
Atomic Cafe
Atrocity Exhibition
Auden, W.H.
Aphorisms
Audio cassettes
Poetry on Tape catalog
Words on Tape
Auschwitz
‘Primo Levi’’
Australia by Rail
‘‘Autocerebrescope Landscapes’’
Kelly, Kevin
Automation
‘*Groupware’’
In the Age of the Smart Machine
Automobiles
Nissan S-Cargo
Ayoob, Massad :
Gun-proof Your Children
Back in the USSR
Backpacking
Backpacking and Camping in the
Developing World
Basic Designs
How to Shit in the Woods
Katadyn Pocket Water Filter
Sew & Repair Your
Outdoor Gear
Treeboat
Backyard Sugarin’
Bacteriology
New Bacteriology
Baker, Will
**Cookiegate’”
“‘Global Teenager ”’
Balkan Express
Ball-Stick-Bird Publications
Ballard, J.G.
Atrocity Exhibition
“Baltic Rocks’’
Riggs, Peter
Barlow, Ronald S.
Antique Tool Collector’s Guide
to Value.
Barnes, Bill
Survival Game
Bart, Pauline B.
Stopping Rape
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Basic Designs
Bates, Jefferson D.
Portable Office
Bats
America’s Neighborhood Bats
Beal, Stephen
Scanner Book
Bear, Greg
Blood Music
Bear’s Guide to Non-Traditional
College Degrees
63:107
64:65
62:112
63:83
63:108
65:109
65:109
64:88
64:95
"63:87
64:105
62:7
64:89
65:123
65:67
62:103
63:117
. 65:93
62:103
62:102
62:102
63:113
64:65
62:80
65:2
63:102
64:126
63:83
65:56
65:107
65:123
62:134
63:108
63:117
63:76
65:103
65:108
63:83
64:131
7
1
Beekeeping
Honey Bee
Belles Lettres
‘‘Below-Zero Bicycling’
Culhane, Alys
_ Bennett, William
Dieter’s Dilemma
Bensky, Dan
Chinese Herbal Medicine:
Materia medica
Berkeley Macintosh User Group
BMUG Newsletter
Berman, Morris
““Gesture of Balance’’
Bertolucci, Bernardo
Conformist
Bester, Alfred
Stars My Destination
Beyond the Booze Battle
Bicycling
‘*Below-Zero Bicycling’’
Cycling to Xian
Neoprene Shoe Covers
United Bicycle Institute
Big Sleep
Biochemistry
“It’s a Jungle Out There’’
Biosphere
Earth’s Earliest Biosphere
‘*Biotecture’’
Doernach, Rudolph
Birdlegs
‘‘Confessions of a Treehouse
‘Dweller’’
Birds
Birder’s Handbook
Classic Architectural Birdhouses
and Feeders
Blab!
Blackfeet Indian Pencils
Blank, Les
Burden of Dreams
Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers
Blocksma, Mary
Reading the Numbers
Blood and Guts in High School
Blood Music
Blue Heron Farm
Blumlein, Michael
“*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
BMUG Newsletter
Boatbuilding
Steel Away
Bob Jones University Press
Bobby Horton
Body
““Obsolete Body (A Special
_ Section)’’
Body, The
Body in the Mind
Body Invaders
‘Body: Which One? Whose?’’
Johnson, Don Hanlon
Body’s Recollection of Being
‘“‘Bodywork’”’
Ditzler, Richard
Boeshield T-9
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
Book of Fax
Book of the Goddess
Boozhie, E.X.
Outlaw’s Bible
Borchgrave, Arnaud de
Spike, The
Borden, Albert
Finnish Fireplaces
‘Botanical Peace Corps’’
Veriditas
Botany
Economic Botany
“Ethnobotany and the Search for
Vanishing Knowledge’
**Fruitless Way of Knowledge’
64:121
62:117
65:94
64:100
64:62
65:116
63:24
64:104
63:83
63:72
65:94
63:131
64:94
63:131
63:83
64:40
64:65
64:1
64:66
62:43
62:58
63:128
64:122
62:112
62:112
65:91
63:83
63:83
64:52
63:55
65:116
64:94
64:128
64:128
63:2
63:9
63:32
63:33
63:4
63:32
63:10
65:104
64:129
62:111
62:126
64:85
65:119
62:59
64:26
64:48
64:16
64:19
Atlases (continued)
Journal of Natural Products
(formerly Lloydia) 64:48
Lloyd Library and Museum 64:49
Plantwatching 64:14
Boyd, Margaret A.
Where-to-Sell-It Directory 62:21
Bradshaw, John
Bradshaw On: The Family 63:73
Brand, Stewart
‘*Costa Rica Saves World’”’ 65:96
**Sticking Your Head
in Cyberspace’’ 63:84
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase
and Fable 63:107
Briggs, John
Fire in the Crucible 64:121
Bright Shining Lie 63:128
Broadcasting
Sex and Broadcasting 62:110
Broadleaf P4 Soil Polymer 63:115
Brockman, John, ed.
Reality Club 62:84
Broderbund Mathematics Software 64:128
Brown, Bruce C.
Long Strokes 64:95
Stroke! 64:95
Brown, Jim
Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time! 62:113
BrownCor International 63:119
Brunner, John
Shockwave Rider 63:83
Bubble Hoop 65:90
Buckley, Michael
Cycling to Xian 63:131
Buckley, William F.
Keeping the Tablets 65:118
Buddhism
‘“‘Dharma Database’’ 65:74
Building
Complete Illustrated Guide to
Everything Sold in Hardware
Stores 62:104
Connectors for Wood
Construction 62:105
DOME Magazine 62:57
Home Playgrounds 65:122
Place of Your Own Making 62:55
Stone 65:105
Well-Built House 62:55
Building, boats
Steel Away 64:94
Bull’s Eye 63:89
Burbank, Luther
Gardener Touched With Genius 64:36
Burden of Dreams 62:112
Bureaucracy (game) 63:93
Burger, Rolf
Computer Viruses: A High-Tech
Disease 62:89
Burgess, Lowry
Quiet Axis 62:29
Burroughs, William
‘*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’ 63:54
Naked Lunch 63:83
Butterbrooke Farm Seed Co-op 62:78
C&H Distributors 63:118
Cadigan, Pat
Mindplayers 63:83
Caignon, Denise
Her Wits About Her 62:133
CalcuLadder 64:128
Calendars
Mathematics Calendar 1989 62:85
BEE - CLE
Calvert School
Calyx
Camping
Backpacking and Camping in the
Developing World
Equalizer camping mattress
How to Shit in the Woods
Katadyn Pocket Water Filter
Sew & Repair Your
Outdoor Gear
Sunshowers
Treeboat \
Canadian Consumer
Carstensen, Jeanne
‘*Feminism 1989’’
‘*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
“‘Obsolete Body (A Special
Section)”’
“Science Toys’’
Carter, Angela
Sadeian Woman
Cartography
Raven Maps and Images
See also Atlases
Cartoons, political
Bull’s Eye
Cash Copy
Caucus
Caudiciform & Pachycaul
Succulents
Caufield, Catherine
In the Rainforest
Caught Looking
Celestaire catalog
Censorship
Caught Looking
Central America
‘ ‘ANAT’ >
**Costa Rica Saves World’’
Chalice and the Blade
Chandler, Raymond
Big Sleep
Chaos theory
Dynamics Newsletter
Char-L, Inc.
Cheese
Morningland Dairy
Child Abuse Industry
Children
Adventures in Learning
City Safaris
Gun-proof Your Children
‘*Highly Recommended
Homeschooling Resources’”’
Home Playgrounds
Montessori Services
Chimney Fire Alert
China
Discos and Democracy
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Chinese Herbal Medicine:
Materia medica
Chinese Herbal. Patent Medicine
Cholesterol
Cholesterol Control: An
Eater’s Guide.
8-Week Cholesterol Cure (book
& video)
Chronicles (formerly Chronicles
of Culture)
Citizen-diplomacy
Surviving Together
City
City Safaris
Clark, Etta
Growing Old Is Not For Sissies
Classic Architectural Birdhouses
and Feeders
Classical Wizard/Magus Mirabilis
in Oz
Cleaning
Don Aslett’s Cleaning Center
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965
64:125
62:118
62:103
63:117
65:93
62:103
62:102
63:117
62:102
63:117
62:116
63:34
63:2
65:90
63:43
62:27
63:89
64:93
63:121
64:14
64:48
63:42
63:116
63:42
62:44
65:96
62:129
63:83
62:87
64:126
64:52
64:103
64:123
65:122
65:123
64:124
65:122
64:123
64:89
65:51
64:63
64:62
64:63
63:70
63:70
65:119
62:26
63:110
65:122
63:70
62:58
63:109
64:131
149
CO - DIM
Co-dependency Conservation Daly, Mary
Adult Children of Alcoholics 63:72 **Prop 70”’ 62:30 Webster’s First New Intergalactic
Beyond the Booze Battle 63:72 Secrets of the Old Growth Forest 62:48 Wickedary
“‘Dysfunctional Families”’ 63:72 Conservative politics ‘‘Dangerous Liaisons: Quotations
: 50 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Codex Seraphinianus 64:120 ‘Access to Conservatism’’ 65:118 on the Body”’
Coercive Utopians 63:129 Consider a Spherical Cow 62:86 Data Informer Newsletter
Coevolution Consumer information Databases
‘Universal Parasitism and the Canadian Consumer 63:117 “Dharma Database’’
Co-evolution of Extended Cookbooks NAPRALERT (NAtural
Phenotypes’’ 62:90 Art of American Indian Cooking 62:79 _ PRoducts ALERT)
Cohousing 62:56 Cooking From the Garden 62:75 Paradox 2
College education Cook’s Garden 64:39 DataGlove
Bear’s Guide to Non-Traditional Dutch Oven Cooking 62:79 Davis, Mary D.
College Degrees 64:131 Hurricane Kitchen 62:75 Ecologist’s Guide to France
Profscam 64:131 ‘‘Cookiegate’’ Davis, Paul
Collier, Peter Baker, Will 62:80 *‘Access to Subs, Whole
Destructive Generation 64:102 Cooperatives : Earth Style’
Coltsfoot ~ 64:39 “‘Mondragon Cooperatives’’ 62:8 Dawkins, Richard
Columbia History of the World 63:108 Corn . ‘‘Universal Parasitism and the
Columbia/Viking Desk ‘*Delicious Sacrament”’ 64:34 Co-evolution of Extended
Encyclopedia 63:107 Cornelius Chronicles 63:83 Phenotypes’’
' Comics Cornell, Joseph ; Dean, Steve M.
Blab! 63:128 Sharing the Joy of Nature 65:92 Everybody’s Radiation
‘‘Funnybooks’’ 63:90 Corporations Handbook
Savage Henry 63:89 Global Marketplace 63:99 Death Beam
Those Annoying Post Brothers _ 63:89 Costa Rica. Decline of Western Civilization
Watchmen 63:88 “ANAT” 62:44 Deer Valley Farms
‘Coming Divorce in Human “Costa Rica Saves World’’ 65:96 Defender Foam Systems
Nature’’ Coucher, Mimi Deforestation
Moravec, Hans 63:12 **Girl’s Guide to Condoms’’ 62:137 “Political Economy of
‘““Communication Without Count Zero 63:83 Deforestation’’
Symbols’’ Cowan, George World Deforestation in the
Lanier, Jaron 64:118 ‘“‘Simple words about the new Twentieth Century
Communities science of complexity”’ 63:94 Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True
Cohousing 62:56 Crafts business **Del Cabo Project’’
Complete Fix-It-Yourself Manual —_65:106 You Can Make Money From Friedman, Diana
Complete Franchise Book 62:20 Your Arts and Crafts 62:21 Delacoste, Frederique
_ Complete Mlustrated Guide Creasy, Rosalind Sex Work
to Everything Sold Cooking From the Garden 62:75 Delany, Samuel
in Hardware Stores 62:104 Creating Our Future 65:53 Nova
Complete Painters Handbook 63:113 Creativity ‘Delicious Sacrament’’
Complexity theory Fire in the Crucible 64:121 Rheingold, Howard
‘‘Simple words about the new Credit information DeMarco, Tom
science of complexity”’ 63:94 ‘*Social Security Numbers”’ 64:80 Peopleware
Composition, music Criminal Justice: New Technologies Demographics
‘*Interactive Music Software’’ 63:122 and the Constitution 63:101 Insider’s Guide to Demographic
M 63:122 Critters 63:91 Know-How
Music Mouse 63:122 Crosby, Harriet Dentistry
SCORE 63:122 Surviving Together 62:26 Are Your Dental Fillings
Computer conferencing Crumb, R. Poisoning You?
Caucus 63:121 ‘‘People . . . Ya Gotta Desana Shamanism
Computer games ; Love ’Em!”’ 65:41 ‘‘Shamans in the Service
Hidden Agenda 63:98 Culhane, Alys of Plants’’
‘*Non-Linear Fiction’’ 63:92 “*Below-Zero Bicycling’’ 65:94 Desertification
SimCity 63:98 Cutlery Dixon Land Imprinters
Computer networks Rada Cutlery 64:91 Design
Matrix 65:116 ““Cyberpunk Era’’ Feng Shui
“‘Usenet Underground’’ 65:113 Gibson, William 63:78 *‘Our Five Things’”’
Computers ‘‘Cyberpunk 101 Reading List’’ Psychology of Everyday Things
Armchair Universe 62:88 Kadrey, Richard 63:83 283 Useful Ideas from Japan
Artificial Life 62:88 Cyberspace Desktop publishing
Computer Tool Kit 65:117 ‘‘Autocerebrescope Landscapes 63:87 Graphic Design for the
Computer Viruses 62:89 ‘Sticking Your Head in Electronic Age
Computer Viruses: A High-Tech Cyberspace’’ 63:84 Despair
Disease 62:89 ** *Trodes’’ 63:85 Destructive Generation
“‘Dharma Database’’ 65:74 ‘*Virtual Reality: An Interview ‘‘Dharma Database’’
Elements of Spreadsheet Style 63:105 With Jaron Lanier’’ 64:108 Malpas, John
‘*Groupware’”’ 64:105 “Virtual World Sickness’’ 63:86 Diabolique
In the Age of the Smart Machine 62:7 Cycling to Xian 63:131 Diamond K Enterprises
John’s Picks 65:109 Dick, Andrew
Macintosh Bible 63:120 **Poor Man’s Reference Library”’
Scanner Book 65:108 Dick, Philip K.
Concise Columbia Encyclopedia 63:107 Do Androids Dream of Electric
Condoms Sheep
*“Girl’s Guide to Condoms’’ 62:137 Dickinson, Terrence
Conference calls Exploring the Sky by Day
‘Hello, Central’’ 65:110 Dictionaries
‘‘Confessions of a Treehouse ““Poor Man’s Reference Library”’
Dweller’ Webster’s First New Intergalactic
Birdlegs 64:66 Wickedary
Conformist 64:104 Dadd, Debra Lynn Dieter’s Dilemma
Connectors for Wood Construction 62:105 Healthful Houses 62:58 Dieting
Connexions 62:119 Daedalus 63:16 ‘Antidotes to Dieting”’
DAK Industries, Inc. 63:76 Dimensional Mazes
Directories
People’s Yellow Pages
Discos and Democracy
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Ditzler, Richard
**Bodywork’’
Divided Twins: Alaska and Siberia
Dixon Land Imprinters
Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep
Doctor’s Guide to Men’s
Private Parts
Doernach, Rudolph
“*Biotecture’’
Dog Soidiers
Dogs
Dog Law
Nite Lite catalog
Sirius Puppy Training Video
DOME Magazine
Don Aslett’s Cleaning Center
Dona Herlinda and Her Son
Dreams of Reason
Dremann, Craig
“‘Hippie Ethnobotany”’
Dresser Fittings
Drexler, Eric
“Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Dreyer, Peter
Gardener Touched With Genius
Drills
Electric Drill Guide
Drip irrigation
“*Portable Irrigation for
Seedlings’”’
_ Drowned and the Saved
Drucker, Peter F.
New Realities
Drug use and abuse
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
Street Pharmacologist
see also Alcohol, Hallucinogenic
plants, Tobacco
Drugs and Foods from Little
Known Plants
- Dunbar, Dr. Ian
Sirius Puppy Training Video
Dutch Oven Cooking
Dychtwald, Ken
Age Wave
Dynamics Newsletter
‘‘Dysfunctional Families’’
Hawkins, Corinne Cullen
Dyson, Esther
*“Groupware”’
Eagle Agricultural Products
Earth’s Earliest Biosphere
Eastern philosophy
The Body
Eclipse
Eclipse Penumbra
Ecologist’s Guide to France
Economic Botany
Economics
New Realities
Technology and the American
Economic Transition
EDC, Inc.
Eden Express
Editing, software
Active File Comparator
«64:51
65:51
63:103
63:10
62:26
62:49
63:83
65:125
64:1
63:83
65:102
65:102
62:114
62:57
64:131
63:103
62:84
64:25
~ 65:106
63:46
64:36
62:106
63:115
64:88
65:50
64:49
64:25
64:48
62:114
62:79
62:85
62:87
63:72
64:105
Editing, Software (continued)
IBM Typing Tutor
Norton Editor
Tibetan Text Processing System
Editorial cartoons
Bull’s Eye
Education
_ “Highly Recommended
Homeschooling Resources’’
**Robo Prof”’
Effinger, George Alec
When Gravity Fails
Efron, Arthur
Sexual Body
Ehrlich, Paul R. et al.
Birder’s Handbook
8-Week Cholesterol Cure
(book & video)
Eisler, Riane
Chalice and the Blade
Elderly
Age Wave
Growing Old Is Not For Sissies
Electric Drill Guide
Electrical wiring
Wiremold
Electrode implants
** ?Trodes”’
Electronic Commonwealth
Electronic publishing
Informing the Nation
Electronic surveillance
Criminal Justice: New
Technologies and the
Constitution
Electronics
Answering Machine Specialty
DAK Industries, Inc.
Martel Electronics, Inc.
*‘Our Five Things”’
Elements of Spreadsheet Style
Elements of Style
Elgin, Suzette Haden
Success with the Gentle Art
of Verbal Self-Defense
Ellis, Kate et al.
Caught Looking
Emergency Planning & Community
Right-to-Know Act
Encyclopedias
Academic American
Encyclopedia
Columbia/Viking Desk
Encyclopedia
Concise Columbia Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia Brittanica :
World Book Encyclopedia
Enduring Seeds
Environmental model-building
Consider a Spherical Cow
Equalizer camping mattress
Erosion
Dixon Land Imprinters
Erotic by Nature
‘*Estonia: The Singing Revolution’’
Riggs, Peter
Estrada, Alvaro
Maria Sabina: Her Life
and Chants
Ethnobotany
“Botanical Peace Corps’’
“*Ethnobotanical Research
Field Kit’’
‘*Ethnobotany and the Search
for Vanishing Knowledge’’
‘*Fruitless Way of Knowledge’’
‘**Hippie Ethnobotany’’
‘Returning to Plants for
Healing Medicines’’
Ethnopharmacology
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Etymologies
Dictionary of Word and
Phrase Origins
65:77
65:77
65:77
63:89
64:124
62:2
63:83
63:56
62:43
63:70
62:129 _
62:85
63:70
62:106
64:89
63:85
63:101
63:101
63:101
64:92
63:76
64:92
64:86
63:105
63:107
65:89
63:42
63:116
63:108
63:107
63:107
63:107
63:107
— 64:37
62:86
63:117
62:49
63:59
65:56
64:12
64:26
64:30
64:16
64:19
64:25
64:20
64:49
63:107
DIR -
Etymologies (continued)
Dictionary of Word Origins
Origins
Everybody’s Radiation Handbook
Evolution
‘Universal Parasitism and
the Co-evolution of Extended
Phenotypes’”’
““Coming Divorce in Human
Nature’’
“Redesigning the Body’’
Evolution of Crop Plants
Exploring the Sky by Day
((-
Facsimile machines
Book of Fax
Facts on File
Factsheet Five
Families
Adult Children of Alcoholics
Beyond the Booze Battle
Bradshaw On: The Family
“*Dysfunctional Families’’
Family Farming
“*Family Tree’’
Fanzines
See Zines
Farming
““Del Cabo Project”’
Evolution of Crop Plants
Family Farming
Food Crops for the Future
““More Farmers Not Fewer’’
Time to Reap
Farnsworth, N.R.
**Returning to Plants for
Healing Medicines”’
Fasciana, Guy S.
Are Your Dental Fillings ©
Poisoning You?
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
Despair
Fat is a Ferninist Issue
Fax
Book of Fax
Feeding the Hungry Heart
Feher, Michel et al.
Fragments for a History
of the Body
Feldman, Esther
“<Prop 70”’
Feminism (survey)
Feminist spirituality
Book of the Goddess
Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols
and Sacred Objects
Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths
and Secrets
Womanspirit Sourcebook
Feng Shui
Fiddler’s Green Farm
Fighting Woman News
Finance
Wall Street Journal Guide to Un-
FIR
63:107
63:107
65:104
62:90
63:12
63:18
64:38
62:29
64:51
64:104
64:100
62:111
64:101
63:33
62:30
62:116
62:126
62:127
62:127
62:127
63:112
64:52
62:135
derstanding Money & Markets 65:121
Finley, Karen
**Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Finnish Fireplaces
Fire in the Crucible
Fire prevention
Chimney Fire Alert
Defender Foam Systems
Wildfire Across America
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965
63:48
62:59
64:121
64:89
62:59
62:59
15]
FIR - HAL
Firearms
Gun-proof Your Children 65:123
First aid
Masuen First Aid and
Safety Supplies 62:114
Fishman, Daniel
Book of Facts 62:111
Fisk, Pliny
“*Thinking Globally at
Max’s Pot’’ 62:50
Fix-It-Yourself Manual 65:106
Florilegia 62:118
Flowers
Antique Rose Emporium 65:103
Food
Coltsfoot 64:39
Drugs and Foods from Little-
Known Plants 64:48
Economic Botany | 64:48
Evolution of Crop Plants 64:38
Food is a Feminist Issue
(Heresies 21) 64:100
Food Crops for the Future 64:38
‘*Hippie Ethnobotany”’ 64:25
**Mail Order Foods”’ 62:76
**More Mail Order
Organic Foods”’ 64:52
Organic Wholesalers Directory
& Yearbook 1989 64:53
Foreign exchange students
Host Family Survival Kit 65:52
Foreign languages
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers 64:129
Classical Wizard/Magus
Mirabilis in Oz 63:109
International Linguistics
Corporation 64:130
**Study the Latin, I pray you”’ 63:109
Sybervision 64:130
**Teaching English in Japan’’ 65:72
Visual Education Association
(Vis-Ed) 64:130
Waldo Sweet’s Artes Latinae 64:129
Foreign relations
Surviving Together 62:26
Forestry
“ANAI”’ 62:44
Forest and the Trees 62:49
‘Reforming the Forest Service
From Within’’ 64:76
Secrets of the Old Growth Forest 62:48
Tree Crops 64:37
Forests
Forest Journey 64:78
Fragmented Forest 64:77
In the Rainforest 64:48
“*Political Economy
of Deforestation’’ 64:68
“*Seringueiros — The Rubber
Tappers”’ 64:79
World Deforestation in
the Twentieth Century 64:78
Foster, Dennis L.
Complete Franchise Book 62:20
Foucault, Michel
History of Sexuality ~ — 63:58
Fractals
Fractal Universe Catalog 62:89
Science of Fractal Images 63:104
“*Fracture of Another Sort’’: 65:124
Fragmented Forest 64:77
Fragments for a History of
the Body 63:33
France
Ecologist’s Guide to France 63:131
Franchising
Complete Franchise Book 62:20
Question & Answer Guide to
Successful Franchising 62:20
Fratkin, Jake
Chinese Herbal Patent Medicine 64:63
Friedman, Diana
“Del Cabo Project’’ 62:60
4 52 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Friedman, Diana (continued)
Organic Wholesalers Directory
& Yearbook 1989
Frommer, Arthur
New World of Travel 1989
Frontera
Frostex IT Heating Cable
‘‘Fruitless Way of Knowledge’’
Maxwell, Nicole
Fugett, Dick
‘‘Most Practical Thing I Learned
in College’’
‘*Teaching English in Japan’’
‘‘Funnybooks’’
Vandershaf, Sarah
Furniture hardware
Paxton Hardware
Future Shock
Gaia theory
Ages of Gaia
Games
Dimensional Mazes
Survival Game
Games, computer
Hidden Agenda
**Non-Linear Fiction’’
SimCity
Garb, Yaakov
‘*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Garbage Management in Japan.
Garden of Microbial Delights
Garden Spot Distributers
Gardener Touched With Genius
Gardening
Cook’s Garden
Cooking From the Garden
Shepherd’s Garden Seeds
Garfinkel, Simson
**Social Security Numbers’’
Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers
Gates of Heaven
Geduldig, Lisa
‘*Women in Martial Arts’’
Geneology
“*Family Tree’
Genes
‘‘Universal Parasitism and the
Co-evolution of Extended
Phenotypes”’
Genius
Fire in the Crucible
Geodesic domes
DOME Magazine
- Geomancy
Feng Shui
“‘Gesture of Balance’’
Berman, Morris
Gibbons, Dave
Watchmen
Gibson, William
Count Zero
**Cyberpunk Era’’
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Neuromancer
Gilbaugh, James H,
Doctor’s Guide to Men’s
Private Parts
Gimbutas, Marija
Goddesses and Gods of
Old Europe
‘Rediscovering the Goddess’’
‘‘Girl’s Guide to Condoms’’
Coucher, Mimi
Glasnost Information Bulletin
64:53
65:52
63:83
64:90
64:19
64:51
65:72
63:90
64:90
63:83
Gliedman, John
Tips & Techniques for Using
Low-Cost & Public Domain
Software 63:120
Global Marketplace 63:99
Global Teenager
‘‘Age of Endarkenment”’ 65:44
‘‘Apocalypse Juggernaut,
goodbye’ 65:38
‘*Global Teenager (A Special
Section)’’ 65:2
**Selling the World’’ 65:36
Goddess
Book of the Goddess 62:126
Chalice and the Blade 62:129
Goddesses and Gods of
Old Europe 62:126
Jambalaya 62:129
‘*Rediscovering the Goddess’’ 62:120
Truth or Dare 62:128
Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols
and Sacred Objects 62:127
Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths
and Secrets 62:127
Womanspirit Sourcebook 62:127
Gold Mine Natural Food Company 64:53
Good, Clint
Healthful Houses 62:58
‘‘Good Videos’’
Documentaries 62:112
International Psychological
Dramas 64:104
International Satire 63:102
Gould, James & Carol Grant ,
Honey Bee 64:121
Graham, Scott
Backpacking and Camping in the
Developing World 62:103
Graphic Design for the
Electronic Age 63:105
Gravity’s Rainbow 63:83
Great Divide 65:120
Great Place to Work ~~ 62:18
Greek, classical
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers 64:129
Green Earth Natural Foods 64:53
Greenwald, Jeff
“Shopping for Buddhas”’ 65:79
Grey Water Use in the Landscape 62:40
Griffin, Susan
‘‘Heinrich Himmler: A Body
of Authority’’ 63:60
‘*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’ 63:52
Pornography and Silence 63:42
Grizzly Imports, Inc. 65:107
Groo the Wanderer 63:91
Ground Water 62:040
‘‘Groupware’’
Dyson, Esther 64:105
Growing Old Is Not For Sissies 63:070 ©
Grun, Bernard —
_ Timetables of History 63:108
Guide to the American Left 63:129
Guide to the American Right ~63:129
Guide to Understanding Money
& Markets, Wall Street Journal 65:121
Gun-proof Your Children 65:123
Gunderloy, Mike
How to Publish a Fanzine 62:110
Gynopathy
- “When Women Take Over’’ 63:71
Haight, Timothy
_ “Living in the Office”’ 63:74
Hall, Donald
Writing Well 63:107
Hallucinogenic plants
Maria Sabina: Her Life
and Chants 64:12
“Plan, Plant, Planet’’ 64:5
Shamanism, Colonialism, and
the Wild Man 64:12
Halpin, James
‘*Robo Prof”’ 62:2
Hamilton, John Maxwell |
Main Street America and the
_ Third World 65:53
Hammocks
Treeboat 62:102
Hammond World Atlas 63:107
Happiness
Psychology of Happiness 64:99
Hardware
Complete Illustrated Guide
to Everything Sold in
Hardware Stores 62:104
Paxton Hardware 64:90
Sampo Ball-Bearing Swivels 64:90
Harper, Douglas
Working Knowledge 62:7
Harper, Maxwell
How to Get the Job You Want
After 40 62:19
Harris, Larry D.
Fragmented Forest 64:77
Hartley, Nina
**Is the Body Obsolete?
: A Forum’’ 63:41
Haute, John
Consider a Spherical Cow 62:86
Hawaii
Hidden Hawaii 63:130
Hawkins, Corinne Cullen
“‘Dysfunctional Families’’ 63:72
‘*Good Videos: Documentaries’? 62:112
“Good Videos:
International Satire’ 63:102
Hawthorne Valley Farm 64:52
Head-Mounted Display System
‘Sticking Your Head
in Cyberspace’’ 63:84
‘Healing, Remission and
Miracle Cures’’
O’Regan, Brendan 65:126
Healthful Houses 62:58
Heating systems
_ Finnish Fireplaces 62:59
Frostex II Heating Cable 64:90
Heckler, Richard Strozzi
Anatomy of Change 63:10
‘‘Heinrich Himmler: A Body
of Authority’’ ‘
Griffin, Susan 63:60
‘*‘Hello, Central’’
Jaffe, Louis 65:110
Her Wits About Her 62:133
Herb & Spice Collection 64:52
Herbal medicine
Chinese Herbal Medicine 64:63
Chinese Herbal Medicine:
Materia medica ' 64:62
Chinese Herbal Patent Medicine 64:63
*“New Look at Botanical
Medicine’ 64:54
Planetary Herbology 64:62
Science and Romance of Selected
Herbs Used in Medicine and
Religious Ceremony 64:38
Heresies 62:117
Heresies 21: Food is a Feminist Issue 64:100
Hershkowitz, Allen
Garbage Management in Japan 62:43
Hidden Agenda 63:98
Hidden Hawaii 63:130
Higby, Sha Sha
“*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’ 63:47
‘‘Highly Recommended '
Homeschooling Resources’’
Pride, Mary 64:124
Himmler, Heinrich
“‘Heinrich Himmler: A Body
of Authority”’
Hinke, C.J.
Classical Wizard/Magus
Mirabilis in Oz
‘*Study the Latin, I pray you’’
“‘Hippie Ethnobotany’’
Dremann, Craig
History
Alphabetization of the
Popular Mind
Columbia History of the World
Destructive Generation
History of Sexuality
Rand McNally Atlas of
World History
Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
Timetables of History
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy (game)
Hobhouse, Henry
Seeds of Change
Holocaust
“‘Primo Levi’’
Home Life
Home Planet
Home Playgrounds
Home Recording
Home repairs
Complete Fix-It-Yourself Manual
Homeschooling
‘*Highly Recommended
Homeschooling Resources’’
Honey Bee
Horowitz, David
Destructive Generation
Horvitz, Robert
“‘Usenet Underground”’
Host Family Survival Kit
House building
Place of Your Own Making
Well-Built House
Housecleaning
Don Aslett’s Cleaning Center
House painting
Complete Painters Handbook
Houses
‘*Biotecture’’
‘‘Confessions of a Treehouse
Dweller’’
DOME Magazine
Healthful Houses
_ Mobile Home Weatherization
Housing
Cohousing
How to Get the Job You Want
After 40
How to Publish a Fanzine
How to Shit in the Woods
Hug a Tree
Hurricane Kitchen
a
IBM Typing Tutor
Iditabike race
‘*Below-Zero Bicycling”’
Ikon
Illich, Ivan
Alphabetization of the
Popular Mind
In the Age of the Smart Machine
In the Rainforest
‘Industrial Supply Catalogs’’
Kelly, Kevin
63:60
63:109
63:109
64:25
64:122
63:108
64:102
63:58 -
63:107
64:102
63:108
63:93
64:50
64:88
64:130
62:27
65:122
63:123
65:106
64:124
64:121
64:102
65:113
65:52
62:55
62:55
64:131
63:113
64:1
64:66
62:57
62:58
62:57
62:56
62:19
62:110
65:93
65:92
62:75
65:77
65:94
62:118
64:122
62:7
64:48
63:118
HAL - JUN
Information
In the Age of the Smart Machine
Information Anxiety
Information highways
Electronic Commonwealth
Information Please Almanac
Information U.S.A.
Informing the Nation
Insect-Eating Plants
Insider’s Guide to Demographic
Know-How
Insight
Instant Information
Institutional cooking
Hurricane Kitchen
‘Interactive Music Software’’
Tarte, Bob
International Linguistics
Corporation
International Thesaurus
of Quotations
Invention
Social Inventions
What the World Needs Now
Irrigation
Broadleaf P4 Soil Polymer
‘*Portable Irrigation for
Seedlings”’
‘Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Isaac, Rael Jean & Erich
Coercive Utopians
Islands in The Net
“It’s a Jungle Out There’
McKenna, Dennis J.
Iyer, Pico
Video Night in Kathmandu
Jaffe Brothers
Jaffe, Louis
**Hello, Central’’
Jambalaya
Japan
Garbage Management in Japan
Japan Times
Jobs in Japan
‘‘Teaching English in Japan’
283 Useful Ideas from Japan
Jewelry
Artists Anodizing Aluminum
“Jigsaw Puzzle’’
Wells, Malcolm
Job’s Body
John’s Picks
Johnson, Don Hanlon
‘*Body: Which One? Whose?’’
Johnson, Mark
Body in the Mind
Johnson, Steven M.
‘*Portable Office’
What the World Needs Now
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Journal of Mind and Behavior
Journal of Natural Products
(formerly Lloydia)
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
Journalism
Main Street America and the
Third World
Youth News Service
Judge Dredd
Juhan, Deane
Job’s Body
Juno, Andrea
Modern Primitives
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965
62:7
63:111
63:101
63:108
63:108
63:101
64:15
63:99
65:119
63:108
62:75
63:122
64:130
63:108
64:120
63:77
63:115
63:115
63:51
63:129
63:83
64:40
65:78
62:78
65:110
* 62:129
62:43
65:73
65:73
65:72
62:100
64:91
62:22
63:10
65:109
63:4
63:32
63:77
63:77
64:49
63:56
64:48
64:49
65:53
65:53
63:90
63:10
63:23
153
KAD - MAX
Kadrey, Richard
‘‘Cyberpunk 101 Reading List’’
“*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Metrophage
““Obsolete Body (A Special
Section)’’
Kaswan, Jaques & Ruth
‘‘Mondragon Cooperatives’”’
Katadyn Pocket Water Filter
Kaye, Geraldine C.
Wild and Exotic Mushroom
63:83
63:34
63:83
63:2
62:8
62:103
Cultivation in North America 64:64
Keeping the Tablets
Kelly, David
Secrets of the Old Growth Forest
Kelley, Kevin W.
Home Planet
Kendrick, Walter
Secret Museum
Kennedy, Paul
65:118
62:48
62:27
63:43
Rise and Fall of the Great Powers 64:102
Kewdney, A.K.
Armchair Universe
Kimball, Yeffe
62:88
Art of American Indian Cooking 62:79
King, Dennis
Lyndon LaRouche and the New
American Fascism
King, Nancy
Host Family Survival Kit
Kinney, Jay
‘Access to Conservatism’’
Kinship
‘*‘Family Tree’’
Kiss of Mary Pickford
Knipex Alligator Pliers
Knives
Rada Cutlery
Koren, Leonard
283 Useful Ideas from Japan
- Kourik, Robert
64:103
65:52
65:118
62:115
63:103
62:106
64:91
62:100
Grey Water Use in the Landscape 62:40
Kowalski, Robert E.
Eight-Week Cholesterol Cure
Kraybill, Donald B.
Riddle of Amish Culture
Kroker, Arthur and Marilouise
Body Invaders
Kyselka, Will
Ocean in Mind
Lahndorff, Vera
Veruschka
Langton, Christopher G.
Artificial Life
Language
Alphabetization of the
Popular Mind
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
International Linguistics
Corporation
**Study the Latin, I pray you”’
Sybervision
‘*Teaching English in Japan’’
Visual Education Association
(Vis-Ed)
63:70
65:93
63:33
62:28
63:23
62:88
64:122
64:129
64:130
63:109
64:130
65:72
64:130
: 54 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
Language (continued)
Waldo Sweet’s Artes Latinae
Webster’s First New Intergalactic
Wickedary
Lanier, Jaron
‘‘Communication Without
Symbols’’ ;
‘*Virtual Reality: An Interview
With Jaron Lanier’”’
Lant, Dr. Jeffrey
Cash Copy
LaPlantz, David
Artists Anodizing Aluminum
LaRouche, Lyndon
Lyndon LaRouche and the New
American Fascism
Last and First Men
Last Navigator
Latin
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
Classical Wizard/Magus
Mirabilis in Oz
“‘Study the Latin, I pray you’’
Waldo Sweet’s Artes Latinae
‘‘Latvia: The Ears of the Nation’’
Riggs, Peter
LCD Thermometer
League of Nations Trading Cards
Lee, Hyapatia
“Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Left-wing politics
Coercive Utopians
Destructive Generation
Guide to the American Left
Zeta Magazine
‘‘Legalizing Street Foods in the
Third World’’
Tinker, Irene
Lehane, Brendan
Power of Plants
Lenay, Charles
‘*Poietic Generator’”’
Lesko, Matthew
Data Informer Newsletter 65:117
Information, U.S.A.
Levering, Robert
Great Place to Work
Levi, Primo
Drowned and the Saved
Moments of Reprieve
Monkey’s Wrench
Reawakening
Survival in Auschwitz
Levin, David Michael
Body’s Recollection of Being
Opening of Vision
Libraries
64:129
62:128
64:118
64:108
64:93
64:91
64:103
63:83
62:28
64:129
63:109
63:109
64:129
65:62
63:112
65:120
63:41
63:129
64:102
63:129
65:120
62:72
64:36
62:108
63:108
62:18
64:88
64:88
64:88
64:88
64:88
63:32
63:32
‘*Poor Man’s Reference Library’’ 63:106
‘*Lithuania: Outrageous Acts
of Music’’
Riggs, Peter
Living Farms
‘‘Living in the Office’’
Haight, Timothy
Lloyd Library and Museum
Lloydia (journal)
Locke, Jim
Well-Built House
Logsdon, Gene
‘*‘More Farmers Not Fewer’’
Long, Steve & Cindy
You Can Make Money From
Your Arts and Crafts
Long Strokes
Los Angeles Commission on
Assaults Against Women
Women’s Self-Defense
Loty, Laurent
‘*Poietic Generator’”’
Lourde, Audre
**Uses of the Erotic’’
Lovelock, James
Ages of Gaia
}
de. Lule Sn ee ee oe nee aleve aad pts
65:62
62:77
63:74
64:49
64:48
62:55
62:64
62:21
64:95
62:136
62:108
63:66
62:86
Lozoff, Bo
‘*Prisons as Centers of Kindness’’ 63:126
Lubricants
NEVER-Seez
Lugtenaar, Trooper Tom
Wildfire Across America -
Lyndon LaRouche and the New
American Fascism
Lyon, Thomas J.
This Incomperable Lande
M (music software)
Macaulay, David
The Way Things Work
Macintosh computers
BMUG Newsletter
Macintosh Bible
MacSUB .
Madara, Edward J.
Self-Help Sourcebook
Magic
Jambalaya
‘‘Mail Art Glasnost’’
Welch, Chuck
Mail order foods
“‘Mail Order Foods”’
‘*More Mail Order
Organic Foods’’
Main Coast Sea Vegetables
Main Street America
and the Third World
Makower, Joel
Instant Information
Malpas, John
‘*‘Dharma Database’’
Mann, Rink
Backyard Sugarin’.
Maps
Raven Maps and Images
see also Atlases
Margaret Mee: In Search of
Flowers of the Amazon Forests
Margulis, Lynn
Garden of Microbial Delights
62:107
62:59
64:103
65:100
63:122
65:105
65:116
63:120
63:138
63:73
62:129
65:68
62:76
64:52
64:53
65:53
63:108
65:74
63:113
62:27
64:15
64:64
Maria Sabina: Her Life and Chants 64:12
Marketing
**Selling the World’”’
Martel Electronics, Inc.
Martial arts: survey
Massage Therapy Journal
Mastering the Gentle Art of Verbal
Self-Defense
Masuen First Aid and
Safety Supplies
Mathematics
Broderbund Mathematics
‘ Software
CalcuLadder
Fractal Universe Catalog
Mathematica
Mathematics Calender 1989
Science of Fractal Images
Mathematics, textbooks
Bob Jones University Press
Saxon Publishers
Matrix
Maximum Potential Building
Systems, Inc.
“Thinking Globally at
Max’s Pot’’
Maxwell, Nicole ,
‘*Fruitless Way of Knowledge’ .
65:36
64:92
62:130
63:11
65:89
62:114
64:128
64:128
62:89
63:104
62:85
63:104
64:128
64:128
65:116
62:50
64:19
eine
ee
Maxwell, Ruth
Beyond the Booze Battle
Mazes
Dimensional Mazes
McCamant, Kathryn
Cohousing
McKenna, Dennis
‘*Plant Wisdom Resources’’
“It’s a Jungle Out There’’
McKenna, Kathleen Harrison (Kat)
‘*Seringueiros — The
Rubber Tappers’’
‘*Plant Collecting in Thailand’’
McKenna, Terence
**Plan, Plant, Planet’’
McLarney, Bill
‘ANAT’ >
_ Measurements
Reading the Numbers
Medicinal plants
(‘‘Plants as Teachers —
a special section)
Meditation
**Spiritual Guide to Manhattan’’
Mee, Margaret
Margaret Mee: In Search of
63:72
65 91
62:56
64:48
64:40
64:79
64:32
64:5
62:44
65:91
64:4
65:84
Flowers of the Amazon Forests 64:15
Men’s health
Doctor’s Guide to Men’s
Private Parts
‘Fracture of Another Sort’”’
Mendocino Sea Vegetables
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Meteorology
Exploring the Sky by Day
Metrophage
_ Mexico
“*Del Cabo Project’”’
Meyer, Kathleen
How to Shit in the Woods
Microbiology
Garden of Microbial Delights
New Bacteriology
Milam, Lorenzo Wilson
Sex and Broadcasting
Mills, Stephanie
“*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’”’
Mind-Body theory
Body, The
Mindplayers
Minsky, Marvin
“Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Mintz, Sidney W.
Sweetness and Power
Mirrorshades
Mobile Home Weatherization
Model Mugging News
Modeling
Consider a Spherical Cow
Modern Primitives
Mohr, Merilyn
Home Playgrounds
Mollison, Bill
Permaculture
Moments of Reprieve
Mona Lisa Overdrive
‘*‘Mondragon Cooperatives’’
Kaswan, Jaques & Ruth
Monitor/Video player
Home Life
Monkey’s Wrench
Montessori Services
Montgomery, Rob
‘*Ethnobotanical Research
Field Kit’’
Moercock, Michael
Cornelius Chronicles
Moore, Alan
Watchmen
Moravec, Hans
‘Coming Divorce in
Human Nature’’
65:125
65:124
64:53
63:106
62:29
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‘‘More Farmers Not Fewer’’
Logsdon, Gene
“‘More Mail Order Organic Foods’’
Nugent, Ann
Morningland Dairy
Morris, Errol
Gates of Heaven
Moskowitz, Milton
Global Marketplace
Moss, Robert
Death Beam
‘‘Most Practical Thing I Learned
in College’
- Fugett, Dick
Mountain Ark Trading Company
Mountainsmith Sleds
Multi-Focus
Mushrooms
Wild and Exotic Mushroom
Cultivation in North America
_ Mushrooms, magic
Maria Sabina: Her Life
and Chants
Music
‘*Baltic Rocks’”’
Bobby Horton
Home Recording
‘*Interactive Music Software’’
M (music software)
Music Mouse
Musician’s Music Software
Catalog
Roland Digital Pianos
Roland Multi-Timbre
Sound Module
SCORE
Mycology
Lloyd Library and Museum
Mythology
Book of the Goddess ~
Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols
and Sacred Objects
Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths
and Secrets
i
Nabhan, Gary Paul
Enduring Seeds
Naimark, Michael
**Question Machine’”’
Naked Lunch
NAPRALERT (NAtural PRoducts
ALERT)
National Association to Advance
Fat Acceptance
National Review
National Women’s Martial Arts
Federation
Native Americans
Enduring Seeds»
Natural history
Orion Nature Quarterly
Nature
Hug a Tree
Sharing the Joy of Nature
This Incomperable Lande
Navigation
Celestaire catalog
Last Navigator
Ocean in Mind
Nazi Germany
‘*‘Heinrich Himmler: A Body
of Authority’’
“*Primo Levi’’
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64:88
MAX -
Neoprene Shoe Covers
Nepal
‘*Shopping for Buddhas’’
Networks
Electronic Commonwealth
Matrix
‘‘Usenet Underground’”’
Neuromancer
NEVER-Seez
Nevison, John M.
Elements of Spreadsheet Style
New Alchemy Institute
‘‘Adventures of an
Applied Ecologist’’
‘Out of the Ark and
Into the World’’
New Bacteriology
New Careers Center
Whole Work Catalog
‘“New Look at Botanical Medicine’’
Weil, Andrew
New Realities
New Tree Biology
New Tree Biology Dictionary
New Webster’s Dictionary
New World of Travel 1989
Nierenberg, George
Say Amen, Somebody
Nilsen, Richard
‘Portable Irrigation
for Seedlings”’
‘*Rediscovering the Goddess”’
‘*Reforming the Forest Service
From Within’’
Nissan §-Cargo
Nite Lite catalog
“Non-Linear Fiction’’
Vandershaf, Sarah
Norman, Donald A.
Psychology of Everyday Things
Norton Editor
Nova
Nuclear radiation
Everybody’s Radiation
Handbook
Radalert
Nuevos Alquimistas
ANAT’ >
Nugent, Ann
‘‘Mail Order Foods’’
‘*More Mail Order
Organic Foods’’
Numbers
Reading the Numbers
OFF
64:94
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O’Brien, Mark
“*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
‘‘Obsolete Body (A Special
Section)’’
Carstensen, Jeanne
& Kadrey, Richard
Ocean Arks International
‘Adventures of an Applied
Ecologist’’
Ocean in Mind
.. + Of the jungle
Office of Technology
Assessment (OTA)
Criminal Justice
Informing the Nation
*‘OTA Publications’’
Technology and the American
Economic Transition
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965
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63:2
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155
OFF - QUI
Office Treadmill 63:87
Olson, Carl
Book of the Goddess 62:126
OMB Watch 63:116
Opening of Vision 63:32
Orbach, Susie
Fat is a Feminist Issue 64:100
O’ Regan, Brendan
‘‘Healing, Remission and
Miracle Cures’’ 65:126
Organic farming
“‘Del Cabo Project’’ 62:60
Organic foods
‘Mail Order Foods”’ 62:76
“*More Mail Order
Organic Foods’”’ 64:52
Organic Foods Express 62:78
Organic Wholesalers Directory
& Yearbook 1989 64:53
Origins 63:107
Orion Nature Quarterly 63:116
Ornithology
Birder’s Handbook 62:43
“‘OTA Publications”’
Kelly, Kevin 63:100
*‘Our Five Things’”’
Wells, Malcolm 64:86
‘*Out of the Ark and Into
the World’’
Quiney, John 62:33
Out West 62:111
‘‘Out-of-print, but not out-of-date
plant books’’
Williams, Greg 64:36
Outlaw’s Bible 64:85
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations 63:108
Oxford English Dictionary
(Compact Edition) 63:106
Pacific Association of Women
Martial Artists 62:131
Packaging supplies
BrownCor International 63:119
Pagels, Heinz
Dreams of Reason 62:84
Paintball
Survival Game 65:123
Painting
Complete Painters Handbook 63:113
Paradox 2 63:121
Parasites
‘‘Universal Parasitism and
the Co-evolution of Extended
Phenotypes”’ 62:90
Parks
“*Prop 70’’ 62:30
Partridge, Eric
Origins 63:107
Paul’s Grains 64:52
Pauline, Mark
‘*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’ 63:40
Paxton Hardware 64:90
Pelham, David
Dimensional Mazes 65:91
Pencils
Blackfeet Indian Pencils 64:122
Penis
Doctor’s Guide to Men’s
Private Parts 65:125
*‘Fracture of Another Sort’”’ 65:124
‘*People . . . Ya Gotta Love ’Em!”’
Crumb, R. 65:41
j 56 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
People’s Yellow Pages
Peopleware
Perlin, John
Forest Journey
Permaculture
Perry, Rick
Hurricane Kitchen
Pets
Dog Law
Nite Lite catalog
Sirius Puppy Training Video
Pharmacology
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Lloyd Library and Museum
NAPRALERT (NAtural
PRoducts ALERT)
Planta Medica
Street Pharmacologist
Philbin, Tom
Complete Illustrated Guide
to Everything Sold in
Hardware Stores
Philippines
**Question Machine’’
Phillips, Michael
Running a One-Person Business
Philosophy
Body in the Mind
Body’s Recollection of Being
Opening of Vision
Phonics
Ball-Stick-Bird Publications
Char-L, Inc.
Photography
Divided Twins: Alaska
and Siberia
Home Planet
3-D Catalog
Zone VI Newsletter
Pianos
Roland Digital Pianos
Pietgen, Heinz-Otto
Science of Fractal Images
Place of Your Own Making
Planetary Herbology
Planta Medica
Plants
**Plants As Teachers ( A Special
Section)’’
Plantwatching
Playtime
Pliers
Knipex Alligator Pliers
Plumbing
Dresser Fittings
Frostex II Heating Cable
Grey Water Use in the Landscape
Plundered Hearts
Poetry
Divided Twins: Alaska
and Siberia
Poetry on Tape catalog
‘‘Poietic Generator’’
Lenay, Charles
‘‘Political Economy of
Deforestation’’
Warshall, Peter
Politics
“Access to Conservatism’’
Coercive Utopians
Destructive Generation
Guide to the American Left
Guide to the American Right
League of Nations Trading Cards
New Realities
‘*Prop 70”’
20/20 Vision
Zeta Magazine
Pollution
Healthful Houses
Polynesia
Last Navigator
Ocean in Mind
‘“‘Poor Man’s Reference Library”’
Dick, Andrew 63:106
Population
“‘Apocalypse Juggernaut, ;
goodbye”’ f 65:38
Ultimate Resource 65:51
Pornography
Caught Looking 63:42
Pornography and Silence 63:42
Sadeian Woman 63:43
Secret Museum 63:43
Portable Office 63:76
‘‘Portable Office’
Johnson, Steven M. 63:77
Power of Plants 64:36
Power tools
Electric Drill Guide 62:106
Grizzly Imports, Inc. 65:107
Router Master 62:106
Triton Workcentre i 62:105
Prehistory
Chalice and the Blade 62:129
“*Rediscovering the Goddess’’ 62:120
Pride, Mary
Child Abuse Industry 64:103-
‘*Highly Recommended
Homeschooling Resources’”” 64:124
Privacy
“Social Security Numbers’’ 64:80
‘*Prisons as Centers of Kindness’’
_ Lozoff, Bo 63:126
Product testing
Canadian Consumer 63:117
Products for the Visually Impaired 65:125
Profscam 64:131
Programming
Armchair Universe 62:88
‘*Prop 70”’
Feldman, Esther 62:30
Prophets on the Right 65:118
Prostitution
Sex Work 63:44
‘‘Proverbs’’
Sparrow 63:124
Providence Project
CalcuLadder 64:128
Psychoactive drugs
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 64:49
see also Alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco,
Hallucinogenic plants
Psychology of Everyday Things 63:111
Psychology of Happiness 64:99
Public domain software
Tips & Techniques for Using
Low-Cost & Public Domain
Software 63:120
Publishing, desktop
Graphic Design for the el
Electronic Age 63:105
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity’s Rainbow 63:83
Quarterman, John S.
Matrix 65:116
Question & Answer Guide to
Successful Franchising 62:20
‘‘Question Machine’’
Naimark, Michael 65:54
Questioning Technology 62:87
Quiet Axis 62:29
Quiney, John
“Out of the Ark and Into
the World’’ : 62:33
—
eR ee ee an Se
Quotations
Aphorisms
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
International Thesaurus of
Quotations
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Rada Cutlery
Radiance
Radiation
Everybody’s Radiation
Handbook
Radalert
Radio
Sex and Broadcasting
Sony World Band Radio System
Radio Astronomy
Radosh, Ronald
Prophets on the Right
Rafferty, Kevin
Atomic Cafe
Ragsdale, John
Dutch Oven Cooking
Railroad travel
Australia by Rail
Rainforests
In the Rainforest
Rand McNally Atlases
Randolph, Mary
Dog Law
Rape
Stopping Rape
Rappaport, Amon
‘**Global Teenager’’
Rasberry, Salli
Running a One-Person Business
Raven Maps and Images
Reading the Numbers
Real estate
Rural Property Bulletin
Reality Club
Reawakening
Rebound Balls
Recording, music
Home Recording
Recycling
Garbage Management in Japan
‘Redesigning the Body”’
Stelarc
‘‘Rediscovering the Goddess”’
Nilsen, Richard
and Woolpert, Lori
Reece, Ray
“‘Thinking Globally
at Max’s Pot’’
Reference books
‘*Poor Man’s Reference Library’’
‘‘Reforming the Forest Service
From Within’’
Nilsen, Richard
Reichel-Dolmatoff, G.
‘‘Shamans in the Service
of Plants’’
Reid, Daniel P.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Reiner, Rob
This is Spinal Tap
Repairs
Complete Fix-It-Yourself Manual
Research '
Information U.S.A.
Instant Information |
Responsible Traveling
Restoration
Adopting A Stream
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Restoration (continued)
Dixon Land Imprinters
“Returning to Plants for Healing
Medicines’’
Farnsworth, N.R.
Rheingold, Howard
“*Delicious Sacrament’’
**Ethnobotany and the Search
for Vanishing Knowledge’’
Ricci, Franco Maria
Codex Seraphinianus
Richards, John F.
World Deforestation in
the Twentieth Century
Riddle of Amish Culture
Riegert, Ray -
Hidden Hawaii
Riggs, Peter
‘*Baltic Rocks’’
**Estonia: The Singing
Revolution’’
‘*L_atvia: The Ears of the Nation’’
‘*Lithuania: Outrageous
Acts of Music’’
Right-to-Know Act
OMB Watch
Working Group on Community
Right-to-Know
Right-wing politics '
Guide to the American Right
Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
Rivers and streams
Adopting A Stream
Roberts, Ralph
Computer Viruses
Robinson, Gordon
Forest and the Trees
‘Robo Prof’’
Halpin, James
Robotics
‘‘Coming Divorce in Huma
Nature’”’
Rock’n’ Roll
Back in the USSR
‘*Baltic Rocks”’
‘Estonia: The Singing
Revolution’’
‘‘Latvia: The Ears of the Nation’’
‘“‘Lithuania: Outrageous Acts
of Music’’
Rockwell, Robert E. et al.
' Hug a Tree
Rodale, J.I.
Synonym Finder
Roget’s Thesaurus in
Dictionary Form
Roland Digital Pianos
Roland Multi-Timbre
Sound Module
Roses
Antique Rose Emporium
Roth, Geneen
Feeding the Hungry Heart
Routers
Router Master
Triton Workcentre
Rowing
Long Strokes
Stroke!
Rowley, Gordon D.
Caudiciform & Pachycaul
Succulents
Rubber
‘*Seringueiros — The Rubber
Tappers”’
Rubin, Bonnie Miller
Time Out
Rucker, Rudy
Wetware
Running a One-Person Business
Rural Property Bulletin
Rustproofing
Boeshield T-9
NEVER-Seez
62:49
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64:34
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64:78
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QUO - SEL
Sabbaticals
Time Out
Sadeian Woman
Sagan, Dorian
Garden of Microbial Delights
Sales
Where-to-Sell-It Directory
Salisbury Review
Sampo Ball-Bearing Swivels
Sanders, Barry
Alphabetization of
the Popular Mind
Sandreuter, Gregg E.
Complete Painters Handbook
Santa Fe Institute
‘Simple words about the new
science of complexity’’
Satellite television
Satellite Watch Newsletter
Satire
‘‘Good Videos: International
Satire’
Savage Henry
Saws
Triton Workcentre
Saxon Publishers
Say Amen, Somebody
Scanners
Scanner Book
Schauffler, Richard
‘Access to Subs, Whole
Earth Style’’
Schell, Orville
Discos and Democracy
Schismatrix
Schizophrenia
Eden Express
Schools
‘‘Highly Recommended
Homeschooling Resources’’
Schopf, J. William
Earth’s Earliest Biosphere
Schultes, Richard Evans
Where the Gods Reign
Science and Romance of Selected
Herbs Used in Medicine and
Religious Ceremony
Science fiction
**Cyberpunk Era’’
‘‘Cyberpunk 101 Reading List’’
Science of Fractal Images
“‘Science Toys’’
Carstensen, Jeanne
SCORE
Sculpture
Artists Anodizing Aluminum
Sea vegetables
Maine Coast Sea Vegetables
Mendocino Sea Vegetables
Seamanship
Celestaire catalog
Secret Museum
Secrets of the Old Growth Forest
Seeds
Butterbrooke Farm Seed Co-op
Cook’s Garden
Enduring Seeds
Living Farms
... of the jungle
Shepherd’s Garden Seeds
Seeds of Change
Self defense (survey)
Self-Help Sourcebook
‘‘Self-Organizing Mind of Plants’’
Kelly, Kevin
Selkirk, Errol
Sex for Beginners
27 GATE FIVE ROAD SAUSALITO, CA 94965
SEL - SYB
“‘Selling the World”’
Kelly, Kevin 65:36
‘‘Seringueiros — The Rubber
Tappers”’
McKenna, Kat 64:79
Seven Corners Ace Hardware, Inc. 63:119
Sew & Repair Your Outdoor Gear 62:102
Sex and Broadcasting 62:110
Sex for Beginners 63:44
Sex Work 65:44
Sextants
Celestaire catalog 63:116
Sexual Body 63:56
Sexuality Library 63:58
Shadmon, Asher
Stone 65:105
Shadowgate 63:93
Shaffer, Carolyn
City Safaris 65:122
Shamanism
Shamanism, Colonialism, and
the Wild Man 64:12
‘*Shamans in the Service
of Plants’’ 64:22
Tobacco and Shamanism in
South America 64:13
Shapard, Robert
Sudden Fiction 65:89
Sharing the Joy of Nature 65:92
Sheehan, Neil
Bright Shining Lie 63:128
Shepherd’s Garden Seeds 64:39
Sherlock 63:93
Shields, John Potter
Amateur Radio Astronomer’s
Handbook 62:43
Shigo, Alex
New Tree Biology 65:10
New Tree Biology Dictionary 65:101
Tree Pruning 65:101
Shiner, Lewis
Frontera 63:83
Shipley, Joseph
Dictionary of Word Origins 63:107
Shipping supplies
BrownCor International 63:119
Shirley, John
Eclipse 63:83
Eclipse Penumbra 63:83
Total Eclipse 63:83
Shockwave Rider 63:83
Shoes, bicycling
Neoprene Shoe Covers 64:94
‘Shopping for Buddhas’’
Greenwald, Jeff 65:79
Short stories
Sudden Fiction 65:89
Short wave radio
Sony World Band Radio System 63:76
Siberia
Divided Twins: Alaska
and Siberia : 62:26
SimCity 63:98
Simmonds, N.W.
Evolution of Crop Plants 64:38
Simon, Julian L.
Ultimate Resource 65:51
‘‘Simple words about the new
science of complexity’’
Cowan, George 63:94
Simpson Strong-Tie Connectors
Connectors for Wood
Construction . 62:105
Simulations
Hidden Agenda 63:98
SimCity 63:98
Sinister Wisdom 62:119
Sirius Puppy Training Video 62:114
Sixties
Destructive Generation 64:102
Skiing
Mountainsmith Sleds 64:90
Slack, Adrian —
Insect-Eating Plants 64:15
: 58 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW SPRING 1990
EE NS ee rie oe ea
Sleds
Mountainsmith Sleds . 64:90
Small business
Running a One-Person Business 64:93
see also Business
Smith, J. Russell
Tree Crops 64:37
Smith, LeCain W.
Steel Away 64:94
Snowbiking
‘*Below-Zero Bicycling”’ 65:94
Soap bubbles
Bubble Hoop 65:90
Tom Noddy’s Bubble Magic 65:91
Social Inventions 64:120
‘Social Security Numbers’”’
Garfinkel, Simson 64:80
Software
Academic Courseware Exchange 64:123
Tips & Techniques for Using
Low-Cost & Public Domain
Software 63:120
Elements of Spreadsheet Style 63:105
Software, editing
Active File Comparator 65:77
IBM Typing Tutor 65:77
Norton Editor 65:77
Tibetan Text Processing System 65:77
Software, games
Hidden Agenda 63:98
‘‘Non-Linear Fiction’’ 63:92
SimCity 63:98
Software, mathematics
Broderbund Mathematics
Software 64:128
Mathematica 63:104
Software, music ;
“Interactive Music Software’”’ 63:122
Musician’s Music Software
Catalog 64:122
Somatics
Anatomy of Change 63:10
‘*Body: Which One? Whose?’’ 63:4
“‘Bodywork’”’ 63:10
Job’s Body 63:10
Massage Therapy Journal 63:11
**Obsolete Body (A Special
Section)’’ 63:2
Somatics Magazine 63:11
Study Project in Phenomenology
of the Body Newsletter 63:9
Sonea, Sorin
New Bacteriology 64:65
Sony World Band Radio System 63:76
South America
Margaret Mee: In Search of
Flowers of the Amazon Forests 64:15
‘‘Seringueiros — The Rubber
Tappers’’ 64:79
Shamanism, Colonialism, and
the Wild Man 64:12
Tobacco and Shamanism
in South America 64:13
Where the Gods Reign 64:24
Southwest Research &
Information Center
Workbook 62:42
Soviet Union
Back in the USSR 65:67
**Baltic Rocks’’ 65:56°
Glasnost Information Bulletin 65:67
‘*Mail Art Glasnost”’ 65:68
Surviving Together 62:26
Space
Home Planet 62:27
Quiet Axis 62:29
Spacewarp : 65:91
‘‘Spadefoot Packrat Havahart’’
Warshall, Peter 63:114
Spain
‘*‘Mondragon Cooperatives’”’ 62:8
Sparrow
“*Proverbs”’ 63:124
“‘Spiritual Guide to Manhattan’ 65:84
Spelling
Webster’s Instant Word Guide
Webster’s New World Speller
Spheeris, Penelope
Decline of Western Civilization
Spike, The
‘Spiritual Guide to Manhattan’’
Sparrow
Spirituality
Womanspirit Sourcebook
Spreadsheets
. Elements of Spreadsheet Style
Stapledon, Olaf
Last and First Men
Starhawk
“Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Truth or Dare
Starr Organic Produce
Stars My Destination
Statistics
Insider’s Guide to Demographic
Know-How
Steel Away
Steinberg, David
Erotic by Nature
Stelarc
‘Redesigning the Body’’
Sterling, Bruce
Artificial Kid
“*Is the Body Obsolete?
A Forum’’
Mirrorshades
Schismatrix
“Sticking Your Head
in Cyberspace’’
Brand, Stewart
Stone
Stone, Robert
Dog Soldiers
Stopping Rape
Storage, archival
Archival Quality Materials
Strange, Marty
Family Farming
Street Pharmacologist
Stroke!
Strunk & White
Elements of Style
Stud Sensor IT
Student press
Youth News Service
Students, exchange
Host Family Survival Kit
Study Project in Phenomenology
of the Body Newsletter
‘Study the Latin, I pray you’’
Hinke, C.J.
Success with the Gentle Art of
Verbal Self-Defense
Succulents
Caudiciform & Pachycaul
Succulents
Sudden Fiction.
Sugar
Backyard Sugarin’
Sweetness and Power
Sumner, Louise
Sew & Repair Your
Outdoor Gear
Sunshowers
Basic Designs
Support groups
Self-Help Sourcebook
Survival Game
Survival in Auschwitz
Surviving Together
Sweetness and Power
Swimming
World Wide Aquatics
. Swivels
Sampo Ball-Bearing Swivels
Sybervision
63:107
63:107
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62:107
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64:14
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- 63:117
63:73
65:123
64:88
62:26
64:50
64:94
64:90
64:130
.
Sykes, Charles J.
Profscam
Synonym Finder
Synthesizers
Roland Multi-Timbre
Sound Module
Tampopo
Tarte, Bob
“Interactive Music Software’’
Tati, Jacques
Playtime
Tattoos
Modern Primitives
Taussig, Michael
Shamanism, Colonialism, and
the Wild Man
Taylor, Colin
Australia by Rail
Taylor, Stephen
Place of Your Own Making
Teaching .
Adventures in Learning
City Safaris
‘*Highly Recommended
Homeschooling Resources’”’
Hug a Tree
Montessori Services
Sharing the Joy of Nature
‘*Teaching English in Japan’’
Fugett, Dick
Teaching Tactics
Teamwork
Peopleware
Technology
Criminal Justice: New
Technologies and the
Constitution
Technology
In the Age of the Smart Machine
Informing the Nation
“‘OTA Publications’’
Questioning Technology
**Robo Prof”’
Technology and the American
Economic Transition
Teenagers
Creating Our Future
‘**Global Teenager’’
‘*Selling the World’”’
Youth News Service
Teish, Luisah
Jambalaya
Telecommunications
Electronic Commonwealth
Matrix
‘*Usenet Underground’’
Telecommuting
“‘Living in the Office’’
Teleconferencing
Caucus
Telephone conferencing
“*Hello, Central’’
Television 2
Satellite Watch Newsletter
Terkel, Studs
Great Divide
Textbooks
Bob Jones University Press
EDC, Inc.
Saxon Publishers
Thailand
‘Plant Collecting in Thailand’’
Thermometers
LCD Thermometer
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Thesauruses
Roget’s Thesaurus in
Dictionary Form
Synonym Finder
“Thinking Globally at
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Fisk, Pliny
This Incomperable Lande
This is Spinal Tap
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**Is the Body Obsolete?
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Future Shock
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SYK - VER
Tripp, Rhoda
International Thesaurus
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N an illegally filled wetland
along Newton Creek, a tidal tri-
butary of the Delaware River in
Gloucester, New Jersey, the restoration
challenge was to recreate a tidal wetland
with a diverse native plant community
while controlling the invasion of common
reed. The design strategy was to create
long-term conditions unfavorable to
common reed by setting elevations of
most of the marsh too deep for its sur-
vival, while still maintaining levels
shallow enough for the native species
that once occupied the site. Seven years
later, the marsh is thriving and wild
rice, a highly desirable wildlife food,
is the most successful volunteer.
The site was first regraded, then planted,
while a narrow protective berm held
back the tidal waters of Newton Creek.
(Above) Aquatic species such as cattail
and spatterdock are planted in the muck
in bands at appropriate water depths.
(Center) Groups of two to three root-
stocks of aquatic species are placed in
burlap sacks weighted with stones. The
stones will anchor the rootstocks in the
muck until the roots grow, and prevent
their floating to the water’s surface,
where they would be removed by tidal
action or eaten by ducks.
(Bottom) The site one year after planting.
Andropogon Associates, Ltd.
Philadelphia, PA
Andropogon Associates, Ltd.
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